rebirth
by envy lamperouge
Summary: it's been a year since Izzy has died, and Momiji's moving to America to start college, and get a new start. on his first day in the new country, he meets a new girl, who brightens his life up. rated T for cursing and violence.
1. moving

**BACKGROUND INFORMATION!!!!!**

**Okay it's the year 2009 in the story, so like ……… 1 year has passed since Izzy died. Momiji has had his growth spurt and looks all hunky . XD well forgets that last part… O_O anyways on with the info! He looks more mature and he is too, and he's 18 and (this is really big right there) THE CURSE IS BROKEN! Kyo won't be confined, and he ends up with Tohru and everyone ends up with who they should have ended up with (even Haru with Rin -_-' [but you will see drama from Haru again!{maybe~}]) so now I introduce… *drum roll* **

**-rebirth-**

**-Momiji-may 19 2009-**

I sigh and look up at the dense forest top. I'm on my way with chu-chi, Nauto, and Makenna to where Izzy died. Makenna looks over at me and asks what's wrong

"Hnn? Oh nothing" I had out grown most of them when my third year started, and now I only have a month left until I go off to college. We came upon the steep incline where the ground had collapsed, and I saw Tohru, Kyo, and the twins already there.

"Momiji!" the twins said running up to me. I still remember when Izzy died and I had gone to her house I had found them under the covers listening to her music and reading her books.

Then we told them about Izzy being dead and they were so shocked. Makenna and Haru wouldn't talk, or move, Nauto was devastated and chu-chi was still crying uncontrollably.

Now there was a small tombstone with her name engraved in it. I kneeled beside it. It's been a year… and I still can't believe that I let her fall to her death. I still can't believe that I'll never hear her voice or see her smile again. We were there just talking for a while before it began to rain. I was the last one to leave her grave. It had started raining after Izzy died, right around this same time of day…

**-No point of view-**

A girl with an elegant, but simple white dress, and knee length black hair sat down on a cold stone throne at the center of the earth's underworld. She sighed and called out for one of the maids. A girl with white hair and light blue eyes walked in and answered

"Yes, empress"

"How is he?" the girl with black hair asked

"He, and the others… they went to visit your grave today" the empress sighed

"Now, why would they want to do that?"

"They all seemed to be rather fond of you, empress"

"They really shouldn't be…"

"you can't change what they thought of you empress"

"I know~" a third girl, one with white blonde hair and blue eyes said as she walked in from a portal

"hello Rei-Chan" the empress said. Rei nodded and said

"hello… empress Izzy" Izzy smiled to herself, a smile of regret, loss, and something else Rei couldn't decipher.

**-Momiji-June 21-**

I got accepted into the musicians institute in Los Angeles, and I couldn't be happier (literally. I haven't been this happy in the entire time Izzy has been gone) . Haru volunteered to come with me so that I wouldn't be alone and after little thought I agreed. I was so excited to be in such a great music school, I was practically bouncing off the walls. I was tossing in random things into my suitcase, and then I pricked my finger on a sharp corner of a photo frame. I sat at the corner of the bed and looked at the photo

It was from back in April of last year, and it had been unnaturally warm. I sighed. I placed the picture in the suitcase and went over to see Haru and see if he was ready. We were leaving first thing in the morning.

"Haru!" I called from outside his door. He slid it open a crack to show his monotone face. He had ended up with Rin when the curse broke, so I didn't feel uncomfortable around him anymore, but now that same uncomfortable aura was back

"what's wrong?"

"Rin broke up with me again" o_o I stepped back in case he went black

"do you still want to go to America with me?" I asked cautiously. He sighed and nodded. I smiled too

**-June 22-**

We were waiting at the terminal when a boy with raven hair sat next to me

"is this the flight to los Angeles?" he asked. I nodded

"so why are you going?" he asked

"I'm going to the musician's institute. And you?"

"I'm going to meet my little sister"

"oh, was she just born?"

"nope. She's a week younger than I am, she's my half sister and I never knew about her until a few weeks ago, so I got curious and wanted to meet her" I smiled

"Momiji, I'm going to get something to eat" Haru said in monotone

"'Kay" I replied with a sunny smile

"So your name is Momiji?" the boy next to me asked

"Yup! And what's yours?"

"Lelouch"

"French?"

"Part. My dad had cheated with his wife with my mom, so that's how I have a sister :)" he laughed a bit

"Lookie this is her" he said showing me a picture of a girl with long black hair and dark brown eyes, playing a violin

"Her name is Elizabeth Iromom"

"She plays the violin?" I asked smiling

"I guess. I think she's going to start at some music school in los angeles…"

"_Flight 629 to Los Angeles, please board"_

I went to get Haru, and we boarded on the plane

**-at los Angeles-**

Haru, Lelouch and I got out of the plane, and while I was trying to get transportation, Haru said

"You better go see your friend over there… I think he's getting hurt" I turned my head to see Lelouch getting flipped over by a girl that looked like him. She was angry by the looks of it. I walked over to him, and saw that the girl let go of him and muttering a string of apologies

"Sorry, I'm so sorry, will you forgive me sir?"

"o are you Elizabeth~?" he asked dizzily from being thrown around

"Umm… yes?"

"Hi" he said getting back to normal

"I'm Lelouch. Your brother! Nice to meet you!" she smiled an impish smile and looked cautiously at me

"Hello" I said smiling. It looked like she was blushing but I wasn't sure. She smiled and said

"Hallo" I noticed her voice was accented in German

"Elizabeth is it?" I asked extending my hand out to her

"ja, please, umm call me Elli" she said shaking my hand

"I'm Momiji Sohma"

"Well it's nice to meet you Momiji"

**-Elli-**

After I flipped over the guy and started to apologize to him, and he told me he was my brother I looked over at a handsome blonde boy

I offered to give them a ride to where ever it was they were staying

*after conversation, and going into Elli's car*

"So you're all from Japan?" I asked them, suddenly self conscious about my German accent. My father (who was Japanese) always said he had an interest in foreign woman. He cheated on his wife with a French woman, so I have a brother- half brother, and my mother was German.

"Yup!" answered the cheerful blonde. I smiled

"Then how come you're blonde?" I asked him

"I'm part German :)" I saw him smile from the rearview mirror

"Really? I'm part German too" I said while pulling into the drive way of my house

"So do you and Haru have any place to stay yet?" his expression :) :| :(

"Oh my god I forgot!" he said exaggerating, and having a spaz attack in the back seat

"O_o okay…? Well you guys are more than welcome to stay at my place" I said when we were getting out

"Really?! That would be great Elli!" he said trapping me in a hug. I wasn't that used to physical contact for some reason so I felt sort of uncomfortable.

"Oh, do you talk Japanese?" Momiji asked.

"Um… well it's not my _best _language, but I'm pretty good at it"

"Really? What languages do you speak?"

"German, English, Irish, Japanese, and Spanish"

"I have a smart sister! 8)" o.o ok then~!

"Ya…"

"And what school are you going to?"

"The musicians institute" he looked over to the exuberant blonde

"Ya, see Momiji! What did I tell you? She's going to the same school as you!" Momiji smiled and I smiled back

"Well, the reason I asked about you speaking Japanese, is because Haru here still doesn't know very much English"

"Oh" I looked over to the black and white haired boy with all those piercings. Both he and Momiji were very handsome. I led them all inside and I saw my best friend sitting on the couch, but then suddenly all three guys behind me dropped what they had, and were gaping at her. Well she was very pretty… she had white blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, and a figure that most girls would kill for

"Hi Rei-Chan!" I said hugging her, but she too was gaping at the guys. Lelouch was the first to speak

"Rei?!" she replied

"Lulou?!" I laughed and asked him

"Lulou?!" he said back

"Elli!"

"Rei-Chan!" I complained

"Lulou!" she said sternly.

"I'll be good now TnT" but Momiji and Haru were still shocked

"Oh, ya, and those two… Sohma was it?" she asked with a look of remembrance on her face

"Oh ya! Blondie, you sure changed alot" she said sniggering. I took a seat next to her

"You know Momiji?"

"Yup. He used to date my cousin" she said picking up her soda can and setting her feet on the coffee table. I looked back at Momiji and Haru, to see they both had uneasy looks on their faces

"Aww! You guys don't like my best friend?!" I said with mock sadness

"Well… err… she was very… violent when I met her…" Momiji said nervously

"Rei-Chan was mean?!"

**-Rei-**

"Rei-Chan was mean?!" my 'best friend' exaggerated. Hell ya I'm mean… but by orders of the empress's guards I can't be mean to you. I never really planned to do so anyway… I don't like being mean… but Sochiro made me do it! TnT I really didn't like taking orders from her, but I had to try to break the curse. I clenched my fists, while Elli started talking with her guests

"So how long are you guys going to be here?" I asked my tone sharper than necessary. Elli looked at me like she was worried, or like a little kid who did something bad and forgot to tell her parents about

"Um… well I offered them to stay here… since Momiji is going to the same school at me" o_o o_e e_e

"And you tell me this _now?!"_ she sighed

"Well it just sort of happened while we were in the car…" this time I sighedviled to herself with white blonde hair and blue eyes walked in from a portal

"What about Lulou?" I asked pointing at the raven haired imbecile. He smiled sheepishly

"…"

"No!" I said in denial

"He's staying here too!!!!?!!!" I groaned. We had dated while I was living in Japan. He was the single most annoying excuse of space it has ever been my displeasure to know TnT

"Well he is my brother" Elli said jokingly. Grr… stupid Lulou Q_Q

**Envylamperouge: was it weird?**

**Honestly tell me what you think of this…. Its weird isn't it T^T**

**Well~**

**Please review~!**

**Pretty please Q_Q ~**

**Original post date: 9/21/2009**


	2. bad dream

**-Momiji-June 24-**

o_e Elli is friends with **Rei?! **

"Rei-Chan was mean?!" Elli said animatedly. Rei smiled a warm smile and said

"Well duh!" while ruffling the raven haired girls' hair. They giggled, and after the initial shock wore off Elli lead me and Haru to our rooms

"A few months ago my parents died, and I inherited their house" she said wearily. I looked around the enormous room

"Wow, this is huge!" I said squeaking a bit. I may have grown up, but I still kept up a charade of happiness.

"Yup. So this will be your room" then she turned to face Haru and pointed to her left

"and the next room is yours Hatsuharu" she smiled

"and if you need any help I'll be in the kitchen" she said winking. When she left I had a strange hollow feeling deep inside me. I only recognized the feeling too clearly. After Izzy had died I felt like someone had ripped out part of my soul, for many months it hurt to even think about it, but now the jagged edges were starting to heal.

Right now I felt that strange hollowness I had from when I thought of Izzy, but I had strictly kept myself from thinking of her. I looked at the door, and plopped down on the king sized bed. It had yellow satin sheets and matching everything else. I sighed and started to unpack my bags… when I pricked my finger on the photo frame of the picture I had seen right before heading off to the airport with Haru.

I remembered I had taken so many pictures that day, but I had liked this one the best. I had seen a grey cat with a darker spot over one of its eyes, and when I asked her when she had gotten the cat she had replied

"he just keeps coming to me" then she had laughed and said his name was Arthur.

~*~

The stinging pain around the edges started burning so I just laid back down on the bed and rolled onto my side… then I fell asleep.

**-next day-June 25-**

I groaned and then I noticed that Haru was there. Shit I don't like it when people see me depressed. That's why I smile through it all. All the horrible things that have ever happened to me…

"you alright Miji?"

"huh?" I said trying to perk up

"you seem down… you getting homesick?"

"no… I'm fine… really" I said smiling

"hmm… well I'm hungry… and I think I'm going to get lost in this big house, so help me find the kitchen?" I laughed a bit and tried to retrace our steps back to the living room.

**-an hour later-**

Finally! We **finally **reached the living room! I plopped down on the couch, while Haru went into the kitchen in the next room.

"uh…" I opened my eyes a crack to see Elli staring at me. I straightened up quickly

"sorry, I guess that's not so courteous of me" I said nervously

"no, its fine. I was just wondering if you wanted to go out to lunch with me and Rei?"

"sure!"

"and Haru too…"

"Kay I'll get him" I said jumping off the couch to find Haru, who was eating cold pizza, by the time I got there.

"Haru, Elli-san and Rei-Chan, wanted us to go eat lunch with them" I said brightly. He barely registered I was there

"hmm… alright" he said in the usual monotone. I smiled and we went back to the kitchen. When I heard a flapping noise and then something white flapped onto my shoulder and squawked. I got shocked but then it said

"Looong time no see bunny" it was Kiko. I stared at it for a while

"hey… isn't that Izzy's bird?" Haru said after a long minute

'yeah. After the 'incident' happened, he came over to my house. Then I left for America." Rei said calmly

"and I brought my kitty too :3" she said like a child.

"j'ai faim, Rei!" Elli said tugging at Rei's arm.

"Oui, Oui, mademoiselle!" then Lelouch stepped in

"Je veux aller manger maintenant!" Elli laughed and then we all went to her black convertible. We wound around the colorful streets of los Angeles, until we came upon a fancy looking French restaurant.

**-Elli-**

We walked in and where the waiter asked my name

"Iromom, seats for 5?" the waiter nodded and led us to a booth. While Haru looked at the menu Rei-Chan and Lulou started talking, and I started talking to Momiji

"so have you even been to America before?" he shook his head

"I've lived in Japan all my life"

"really? I've only been to Japan once… I think I was 7" I dug in my wallet for a picture I had

He smiled and said

"aww! You look so cute!" I giggled and then I asked him

"I guess. We spent a week there, but even then I never knew I had a brother" I sighed as the food came. My English, German, and French (damn I forgot to mention it in the last chapter TnT) were impeccable… my Japanese, Irish, and Spanish… there was a lot to be desired…

"merci monsieur" during the meal there was a lot of odd things being said like

"once Lulou drank out of the toilet" and

"and another time, Elli got freaked out by a spider in a car and nearly ran me over" and

"once Hatsuharu was trying to find his way to the ice cream parlor, and he got lost for a week" but the thing that stunned me most was

"Momiji wore all girls clothing for the majority of his life" Momiji just laughed about it. I couldn't imagine him in woman's clothing no matter how hard I tried. Later when we were back at my home and Rei-Chan, Lulou and Haru went off to bed I asked Momiji if he had a picture of when he dressed like a girl. He laughed and handed me a photo

"that's so uber-cute!!!" I exclaimed

"you looks so adorable!!!" I said facing him. He just smiled

"and who'd the girl in the picture?" his smiled faded, and he looked down

"her name was Izzy" I felt bad seeing him sad

"are you two not friends anymore?"

"she… Izzy died last year" I instantly regretted what I had asked him. He looked down at the floor. I placed my hand on his

"oh, I'm so sorry… were you two close?" _stupid, stupid, stupid! Stop asking him these questions!!! _I scolded myself

"immensely so…" he was off staring into space and then closed his eyes. He had stayed like that for so long I thought he fell asleep. He did. My jaw dropped. He fell asleep?! What the hell?! I sighed and closed my eyes. That was a big mistake.

**-Rei-June 26- (I think…) **

I was at the end of the hall barely awake, when I heard a peircing scream. I rushed to the living room. Momiji had fallen off the couch, startled by Elli's frantic screams. She was in fetal position on the floor screaming. I gripped her shoulders and shook her trying to get her out of her hysteria. Tears were welling up in her eyes and she was trembling

"Elli! Calm down!"

" au feu! ça fait mal! Arrêtez l'alarme! il brûle! aidez-moi!" my eyes widened. _Fire ! it hurts! make it stop! it burns! help me! __… _no… it couldn't be… I slapped her

"calm down! le feu est parti! rien ne va te faire de mal! Je suis ici! arrêter de pleurer!"(the fire is gone! nothing will hurt you! I'm here! stop crying!) she froze. I looked over to momiji. His eyes were widened

"don't worry. It happens from time to time…" but it hasn't happened in a while. Sometimes Elli would slip into fits of hysteria. Usually linked to my empress in some way or another. They share dreams from time to time. But this one... Izzy had had it a few months ago. She had woken up in the middle of the night screaming, and when she calmed down, she said that she felt as though her skin was being burned off… exactly like when her soul was accepeted into the underworld… she had had the Alice in Wonderland dream… I had seen it, and it reveals a fight taking place in the underworld shortly before she was named the new ruler. Who ever sees it feels what the original dreamer feels…

so I guess that's why Elli was scared. But it's a bad sign that she has these dreams. They lead her closer to finding out about the underworld. I told Elli that the fire was gone. When a soul first enters the underworld they are in 'limbo' as some people call it, while the soul is being ripped away from it's body in the mortal world, but normal souls are there for about a week or so, Izzy had to experience the burning all with in an hour. ***envylamperouge- … ok so maybe you will not understand anything about what I'm typing until… next chapter?*** and Elli had experienced that aweful pain…

**-Momiji-**

One second I'm in the middle of a good dream, the next, a piercing scream knocked me off the couch. Rei was there next to Elli, who was crying and screaming, like it was the end of the world. Rei slapped her then she said something. Elli froze

"ok. I'm fine now" she stood up, only to fall again

"are you alright Elli?" I asked her. My heart finally calming down

"yeah… my legs are asleep -_-'" she laughed then, ditzy like Tohru

"help me up Rei? I need to go TnT" Rei just laughed.

"Rei! Shut the fuck up! I'm serious! =(" I made my way off the couch and helped her up

"oh, look see, Momiji is nice XP" she said sticking ot her tounge at Rei, and leaning on me to keep from laughing. I smiled. Then a monotone voice said

"I heard screaming. It woke me up"

"don't worry Haru" I said

"mmm? K" then he layed down on the couch and started snoring. Elli laughed. I smiled.

"so why were you screaming?" I asked her

"…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………" it wasd a _**very**_ long pause. Then she mumbled something that sounded like

"fur end allison wonderlen" then she nearly ran down the hall and far out of my line of sight o.o

"uhhh?"

"Elli is so exaggerated. I swear one day she's going to end up setting herself on fire, with a curling iron" then she stalked off to the kitchen. Lelouch came in with a frying pan looking like he was going to knock some's head off

"I heard a scream! Whats going on in here!?!!"

"youre a bit to late for that lelouch" I said playfully. He sighed and said

"I got lost! Its not my fault this house is so huge!!!" I laughed and went to the kitchen.

**Meh… its weird… well…. Tell me in a review what you think of it!**

**Oh! And sorry I didn't update… in like two days… I totally forgot about my computer (I'm painting my room yellow!) and my iPod died T^T (ran out of battery) and then came back to life~! (recharged)**

**So… review~!**

**Q_Q even if you think it's weird T^T **

**Original post date: 10/01/2009**


	3. Alice in Wonderland

**-Momiji-**

Rei was holding something dangling from a golden chain. It looked like an emerald, that had a gold frame around it.

"_so she had that dream before too? Hnn… this is bad" _I stood behind the door listening to her conversation to… er… herself?

"_alice in wonderland. Those girls really are bizare arent they?....... well the queen of hearts is gone. Along with several of the other hearts… yes… I think that the March hare, and the white rabbit were the ones that caught both of their attention. After all… they're bunnies…. Youre right. But it means theyre linked in a way….. of course… goodbye Sokiko-chan"_

She sighed and put away the emerald necklace away. Then she jumped 10 feet up in the air. She frantically took out her phone and answered it

"… you did what?.... you did WHAT with the hair curler?!?!?!!!" she ran out screaming 'Elli you imbecile!' through the other door. I laughed and got breakfast

"Haru~! I want to go see the sites today~!" I said in a sing song voice. Elli had an icepack up to her face

"what happened?!" I said rushing to her side

"I got burned with the curling iron TwT" must. resist. The urge. To. Laugh X3

"you… did what?! XD" she smiled and said

"so you want to see the sights of L.A. do you?" I nodded excitedly

"ya!"

"mmmk, so then lets go see the sights!................. o_o Rei! Where are my car keys?!" there was a high pitched laugh from the hallway

"I think theyre next to the hair curler"

"O_O…………………….. Rei~? Can you get me my keys~? TwT" I laughed and she smiled. She turned to the window and looked back at me and said

"lets go to park"

She opened the sliding glass door and gestured for me to follow her. Out on the patio there was a great view of a big park.

"See! Isn't it pretty!" I smiled and draped my arm across her shoulder

"Ya! Let's go!" I pulled her out the door and I skipped over to the park (I'm still childish)

"O_o kay… you're skipping. O_o and you're… 18?" I laughed

"Yup!"

**-Elli-**

Mmmkay… he's skipping and he's… 18?

"Yup!" he laughed and took my hand. We stopped at the ice cream vendor and got some.

He was staring at me o_o

But he looked so cute X3

X3 he looked so cute I felt like I was melting

"So you came here to attend college… which starts on Tuesday the first… of September?"

"O_o oh. Ya. I guess I got carried away ^_^'" we laughed.

"So why were you screaming this morning?" my eyes widened a bit

**-Flashback-**

I was looking at a 15 year old girl with elbow length red hair with black tips. She has emerald green eyes and she was wearing a gothic Victorian dress. She was sitting on a hill watching a smaller girl with blonde hair and brown eyes in a baby blue Victorian dress chase butterflies. She fell to the floor trying to get something fluffy and white

It was a yellowish white rabbit that was struggling to get free.

"Alice let him go, he's going to hurt himself" the red-headed girl said.

"But heather!"

"Momo, I told you to put him down"

"Fine Izzy" I barely registered the fact that they changed names.

Alice, err, Momo? Well she dropped the bunny and it ran into a rabbit hole, and Alice/Momo went after him. Heather, err, Izzy? Well she looked upset and followed Alice/Momo, to make sure she didn't fall in. but she was a bit too late and Alice/Momo fell into the rabbit hole. Heather/Izzy jumped in after her, and then they were both floating down a long tunnel. There were people off the sides floating too, but they were on chairs and talking casually. There was another redheaded girl that was talking to a blonde man.

"Sawa-san, I do believe that they have arrived" she said sparing a side glance at me and the other two girls.

"Indeed, my sweet" they giggled as we landed, but they stayed in the air. Alice/Momo ran off, and into a small door, and the other girl sighed and stepped up to what looked like a secretary desk. There was a plate of cookies, and she got one, and took a bite. As soon as she did that she grew, her hair becoming completely black, her eyes turning brown, and her entire structure looking older. She looked exactly like me. She looked at the door then at herself. She muttered

"Too big" then she sighed and got a glass of water. Then she grew smaller, not like she was before, but smaller, smaller, her hair was short and completely red, and she looked like a 12 year old. She looked like the girl in the photo Momiji showed me the other day. She smiled and skipped over to the small door and walked in. I was following her and I phased through the wall. The whitish yellowish rabbit was now wearing clothes, and was looking at a watch.

"I'm late! I'm late!" he ran off. Alice/Momo ran after him, with heather/Izzy close at her heels. But then me and heather/Izzy got separated from the bunny and Alice/Momo

We saw a giant mushroom, and on top a woman with medium length white hair that ended in black tips, and dark blue eyes wearing a bright green dress, that had a big bow that looked slightly like butterfly wings on the back, was on top of there, smoking a thin pipe, making different colored smoke rings as she exhaled

"Who… are… you?" she muttered in between smoke rings.

"Heather, heather Lockhart"

"Who???"

"Issabella Momori, I said." O_o did she just change names again?

"I'm trying to find Alice"

"Who???"

"I just said it. I'm trying to find Momo"

"**Do** _you_ know **who** _I_ am???"

"You're… a caterpillar?"

"**Do** _you_ know **who** _I_ am???"

"I just said you're… Sokiko?" Why the hell does everyone change names!?!

"_Why_ are **you** here?"

"I came to find Momo!"

"Why?"

"Because Alice is small, she can get hurt!"

"Why?"

"Forget it" the small girl said storming off into the tall grass. I followed her, afraid of being alone in this odd place. She walks too fast and I begin to fall behind and then she stops abruptly. There are two little girls, twins I think, they have identical clothing, but one is a bit younger looking than the other. They are spinning in a circle.

"We are"

"Tweedle-dee"

"And tweedle-dum"

"Welcome to"

"Wonderland" they said one after another.

"Err, tweedles?" heather/Izzy said uncomfortable. They just kept singing to themselves.

"Tweedles!" they just hummed to themselves spinning in circles

"Lily! Tara!" they stopped and smiled

"Welcome to Wonderland. May we help you?" they said simultaneously

"I need to find Alice"

"Momo, just passed by here" the girl smiled and asked where she went. They pointed in different directions. She sighed and muttered under her breath

"Good for nothing idiots" before walking away in a different direction than either of them pointed. He path dimmed down and then lit up on an old craggily black tree with twisted limbs and roots. I slight mocking laugh came from the darkness. Both heather/Izzy and I stayed still. Then a girl with white blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes with a dark purple and light purple mini dress and black tights showed up on one of the limbs. She had a matching tail and ears. She looked exactly like Rei

"What the hell?" heather/Izzy muttered

"I am the Cheshire cat"

"You're Rei?"

"That's what I said isn't it?"

"Okay…"

"So where are you going?"

"I need to find Momo"

"Alice just passed by… talking about bunny. Do you want to find her?"

"I just said that"

"You just said what?"

"I said…. What did I say?"

"Huh?"

"Are you insane?"

"But of course! Everyone in wonderland is mad"

"Am I mad?"

"If you're here it is only logical"

"But if its mad here, then logic is absurd"

"Absurd is absurd and logic is logic"

"You're not making any sense"

"I don't have to be"

"I forgot what we were talking about _"

"Oh heather, how the queen must be upset if you do not understand her land!"

"The queen?"

"The queen of hearts, my dear"

"I need to find…. What did I need to find?" I wanted to tell her that she was looking for Alice/Momo, but I couldn't find my voice. I looked down at my body to find I had none. I looked over to heather/Izzy and then to Cheshire cat/Rei

"Alice, heather, and everyone else in wonderland, is _**mad**_. But I think I'm quite sane enough to know she went to go see the Mad Hatter and the March Hare…"

"_Mad_, **mad**, _**mad**_" heather/Izzy muttered. We walked down a trail that had many arrows on it but no clear direction. We soon came upon a place where there was a long table and many different sets of teapots and chairs and everything. At the end closest to us there is a much, much, much smaller table with two people sitting on it

The March hare looked like Momiji, but he was nervous looking right now though and was saying

"The dormouse is gone! The dormouse is gone! Will you help us find it?"

"dormouse." Said the mad hatter, his long black hair draping over the chair. He took a long drag from his cigarette

"Dormouse" another drag

"Where are you… dormouse"

"Dormouse!!! Oh dormousie, mah pal!" March hare/Momiji said checking under the lids of the pots and jars. Heather/Izzy checked under one jar and a white mouse looking thingy popped out

"Kiko!" the March hare/Momiji

"I thought we wouldn't find you!"

"Dormouse?" heather/Izzy mumbled

"Dormouse!" the march hare/Momiji and the mad hatter said agreeing, smiles lighting up their faces.

"I'm the March hare, and that is the mad hatter!" the March hare/Momiji said. Then the mad hatter said

"Yes, he is Momiji, and I am Takeo"

"bun-bun and hat guy. Got it" heather/Izzy said smiling. The March hare smiled too. They shared a special look that had unreadable feelings behind their eyes.

'_we have to_ _find_ _Alice/Momo' _I thought to myself remembering why we were here. Heather/Izzy's eyes widened a bit

"Alice! Have you seen her?!"

"Momo went to the queen" the mad hatter said. Then the March hare grabbed her hand

"Don't leave, you only just got here" he muttered. There seemed to be a deeper meaning to it. She sighed and said

"But I have to go" pulled her hand away and ran out the gate down a dark path, and to a garden where we finally had caught up with Alice/Momo

"Heather!" she calls out, a red paintbrush in her hand. The white roses were painted red… 

**-ENVYLAMPEROUGE: MMMK…. BATTLE SCENE NEXT CHAPTER! :D YAY! STILL ALICE AND WONDERLAN-ISH. FOR A WHILE. **

**JUST INCASE YOU DIDN'T GET IT:**

**IZZY- HEATHER**

**MOMO- ALICE**

**MOMIJI- MARCH HARE**

**TAKEO (UNKNOWN CHARACTER AS OF YET) - MAD HATTER**

**MOMIJI'S ZODIAC FORM- WHITE RABBIT**

**CHESHIRE CAT- REI**

**TWO PEOPLE FLOATING- CHU-CHI AND SAWA-SAN**

**CATERPILLAR- SOKIKO **

**TWEEDLE-DEE - LILY**

**TWEEDLE-DUM - TARA**

**ERR… I THINK THAT'S IT? IF NOT TELL ME AND I'LL FIX IT :)**

**Mmmk~ REVIEW~!!!!! **

**Oh…. And sorry in not updating in forever… YouTube….. iPod… **_**stupid geometry tutoring **_**(glares at geometry book)**

**Original post date: 10/05/2009**


	4. battle scene ?

**-Continuation of wonderland fantasy-**

The white roses were dripping red paint. There are other girls painting the other white roses red, and some guys too. They are all wearing white, but on the shoulders and where their knees where there were red hearts and a number next to them as it they were cards from a deck. They were muttering things amongst themselves. One was a little girl with strawberry blonde hair, another had blue hair, and then there was the guy that had dirty blonde curly hair. They were mumbling things to themselves then the caterpillar/Sokiko lady showed up and said

"why are you painting the white roses red? The empress will be furious"

"What do we care of what the queen thinks?" the blue haired little girl said

"You should care, she will kill you"

"WHY ARE THEY PAINTING MY WHITE ROSES RED?!" came a terrifying voice. It sent a trill of fear running up my spine. A woman with long light purple hair and blood red eyes was pointing at Alice/Momo and heather/Izzy

"Off with their heads! I want them dead! They painted my white roses red!" I felt like I was being strangled, then I looked down, I was heather/Izzy. My hair was shorter, and I wasn't wearing what I had been wearing a minute ago. I had a chain wrapped around my throat and the queen of hearts was holding the handle of the chain. I was suffocating, my breath coming out in gasps. Then I was separated from the body. I saw black flames encircling the chain and burning the empress's hand.

"You impudent child!" then a blue circle of fire appeared a few yards away, and Rei stepped out of it.

"Sochiro!" she said, her eyes narrowing

"What is it that you want baka?"

"I've done my part on this deal, now you do yours"

"Why would I do that? I have you completely under my control" Rei scowled

"As long as my little brother and Issabella's mother" I looked down where Izzy was, there was a bunch more people I didn't recognize. But Momiji. I recognized him. He had a chain wrapped around his arm, and wince when the empress pulled on the chain

"I am the empress! I can do whatever I want to do!" she said slapping Rei.

"Stop it!" shrieked Izzy. She brought out the black flames and they broke the chain on her neck. Her eyes went cloudy, and she collapsed on the floor. Sokiko, the caterpillar lady, had on an elegant dress and said to the empress

"Its part of the prophesy empress"

"SCREW THE DAMN THING! IF I COULD DO IT WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THOSE _IDIOTS_ COULD?!"

"Its pa-" Sokiko didn't get a chance to finish her sentence. The empress had slapped her and knocked her back with immense force. I looked back at Izzy, her body on the floor, bruised and bleeding, Momiji was crying, as well as a few other people I didn't recognize

"You bitch!" Rei said slapping the empress. The empress's face looked bewilder

"Stop treating people like crap you self-centered bitch! You have no right to do that!" the look on the empress's face was terrifying. She muttered something illegible, and then Rei fell to her knees in obvious pain

"As if you can defeat me! As if any of you-" she said looking at the people huddled on the floor "could stop me from killing you all!"

"Be quiet" everyone turned to the seemingly lifeless corpse of Issabella Momori.

"You're giving me a headache" she said pushing her arms to raise herself up a bit. She kneeled on the floor

"Who made you the damned queen of this place?! Who was stupid enough to allow you to rule!?" she said standing up

"You egotistical moron!" just then a loud booming noise sounded. Then portals opened from all over the walls and a lot of people started coming out, like when you're at school and the bell rings and the halls flood with people. The all froze when they saw the empress and the other people. Hushed tones and wary eyes overlooked the scene.

"I have an army of people willing to fight you! You cannot defeat me!" A small girl with blue hair, I recognized her as one of the painters of the roses, stepped forward.

"Sochiro, do you really intend to break the cycle?"

"Silence! I am your ruler!" the small girls eyes flashed white and then she scowled

"You dare bet against my power!?" the small girl yelled. The empress scowled

"I can do what I want!" she shot out flames aimed for Izzy, but she shot back with her own black ones that made the white ones disappear and still kept going for the empress. She was knocked back down again, and blood was seeping out of her mouth

"Those who serve their empress will fight for her!" The empress said to the crowd

"And those who wish to move forward and live a better life will fight against her!" the small blue haired child rebutted.

Then a loud cracking noise erupted from the crowd of people followed by several others. I don't know who threw the first punch. I don't know how the people started enveloping the small group I was in. I don't know why wind blew by me, but I do know that after that wind passed Izzy was laughing. It was a small laugh at first, the kind of laugh you would give if your best friend told you a really bad joke. But it gradually turned into a hysterical laugh, a laugh of denial and pain. Her hand was covering a spot on her chest and now she moved it revealing what looked like a spear head lodged deep inside her chest, it was oozing bright crimson blood

"So the games have begun. Ne Rei-Chan?" she said with a small fairy like smile.

"Yes, but I think we're a bit outnumbered don't you think?" she said turning to the side. Out of her side there was a long bloody gash, and the two were talking as if it was a friendly game.

"Oh, yes indeed, don't you think it will be more fun with our pets?"

"I totally forgot about them!" Rei exclaimed like a little kid, while clapping her hands together. They looked at a purpled headed guy and a carrot top, with devious looks in their eyes. Then they were both engulfed in flames, Rei in blue ones and Izzy in black ones. They had transformed, Izzy looking like a 17 year old, her hair long and vibrant, and a white blouse and long red skirt. She turned back to the empress

"Shall the games begin between you and me?" she asked. The empress glared at her

"Of course" she said as civilized as she could manage. Mean while I looked at Rei and she had an elegant and ordinate black slick dress. She had ghosted over to the orange haired boy and the purple haired boy and her hands went through them extracting something odd. They looked like spheres of light that transformed into hideous monsters. The one from the orange haired boy turned into what looked like a deformed disgusting rabbit, and the one from the violet haired boy, turned into a fiery green serpent like creature. From herself came one that looked like a giant bird, that was melting, but on blue fire at the same time. Izzy summoned hers, that looked like a giant deformed rabbit as well, but hers was larger, more vicious and it was on black fire. Izzy and Rei turned to face each other

"Nous restons ensemble?" Rei said. Izzy smiled and nodded then she laughed

"jusqu'à la fin" they smiled and held each other's hands, before a giant ball of white fire was thrown at them Izzy cursed and her hand covered up another bleeding spot on her arm. She removed her hand from the wound and on her palm the blood had taken the shape of a spade (like from a deck of cards) from it sprouted a large lethal looking sword. She ran into the crowd of fighting people and demons, slicing anyone who was her enemy.

Rei, in the mean while had just decapitated some guy who tried to get near the Sohma's- hold on… when did I learn their names?! Whatever. She then made a barrier while saying to them

"You can either fight for you lives, or die with us" Kyo, Yuki, chu-chi, Nauto and Makenna and laurel- I'm serious how do I know their names?!- left the barrier to fight. They fought against the demons and people, trying to protect the others still in the barrier.

I looked back at Izzy who had apparently lost her sword, but then she dug her hands into one of the enemies and then tore him up from the inside out. His insides were drenched in scarlet blood, and now the red-headed girl was speckled in dried and fresh blood. Something hit her back, and an almost animalistic growl escaped her lips as she pounced on the offending person.

The small blue haired girl caught my attention. She looked so small and fragile I was afraid she would break, but she just stood perfectly still in the center of the fighting, with her eyes closed and her hands behind her back. When someone tried to attack her –BOOM- she went into fighting stance and orange flames shot out of her palms. It paralyzed her opponent, and made them see things that I couldn't, but the sight obviously was torturing to the person. They writhed on the floor begging for death to come and finish them.

Then I saw the white haired girl- Sokiko was it? - She was attending to the injured, as was Nauto. The guy from my Alice and wonderland fantasy, the mad hatter- or was it Takeo? Well either was he was fighting too, and he had a samurai sword and had just plunged it deep into someone's chest, and I watched as that person evaporated into thin air.

Then there was a loud shriek. Everyone who was in the fight turned towards the sound that made all others nothing compared to it. I looked at it. Izzy was fighting against the empress. The empress had part of her arm missing. That's why she had screamed

"You stupid girl! I'll kill you!" the empress said firing another ball of white light at Izzy. She had managed to avoid it before it hit her, but then her sword came from the spade of her palm. She swung it at the empress who dodged it by a hair. Everyone around them was captivated by the fight

Then the empress vanished into thin air. Her voice echoed and bounced off the walls

"You cannot defeat me! I am all powerful!" then she appeared again behind Izzy's back and she held a blade up to her throat

"Izzy! No!" came a small plea from the blonde. He pushed his way through the crowed trying to get to the red-head. Before he could get to her, one of the empress's loyal servants captured him

"Take one more step and your precious girl will die" at that moment I felt a burst of rage. I wanted to pry Momiji out of the woman's arms, and kill her with my hands. I hated that she would ever even _think _of laying a hand on him. I grudgingly peeled my eyes away from Momiji to see Izzy and the empress wielding their weapons. Izzy had her sword with a ruby in the handle, and the empress had a black staff with a black half heart handle. The empress smiled and said again mockingly

"You cannot defeat me" Izzy lunged after the empress, and then her sword reverberated when it came in contact with the staff. They hit, over and over, the sound nearly making my ears bleed. The empress in frustration gave an animalistic growl.

Then… then there was a sickening cracking noise. It caused my stomach to twist uneasily. Both Izzy's and my eyes widened in fear. We turned torwards the sound of the crack. In the arms of the servant was Momiji, his eyes lifeless, blood seeping from his partly open mouth. In my rage I was seeing red.

Izzy let out a choked sob and she dropped the sword, the she dropped herself onto her knees, tears streaming down her face. The empress laughed

"That's right… bow before me!" in Izzy's eyes there was pain, loss, frustration, rage… from where she was she looked up at the empress who was now in front of her. The empress strangled her, and lifted her up into the air as far she her arms would allow it. Izzy's legs dangled in the air, but she said nothing. She just looked down at the floor, there was a laugh accompanied by another, and another, until a bunch of people were laughing.

"You've just broken the last control that the demon has, my you really are foolish so-chi-ro~!" said a girl with long brown hair.

"URASAI!" she said throwing her staff trying to hit her head. But she almost dropped Izzy when she did that

"Demon?! This girl is broken, lifeless!" there were several choked sobs amongst the laughter. Then the oddest thing happened. Izzy began to laugh. It was a psychotic laugh, crazy and wild. Her hands held onto the empress's

"You took the most important thing in my life away…" her nails dug into Sochiro's (the empress) hand. Trails of blood were seeping down but she didn't do anything about it. Izzy's arm shot out to slap her and Sochiro dropped her as a result, and Izzy kicked her legs out tripping the empress, while she tried to get to Momiji. The empress stopped her, and Izzy punched her square in the jaw. Blood seeped from the cut in her lip and she smiled, which led to punch after cracking punch. The empress fell to the ground, and then Izzy took out her sword again and cut her wrist with it so now the edge of the blade was dipped in blood, and she dug into the ground. Waves of blood rose in streaks on the ground and cut up the empress. Izzy walked calmly over to her and her hand went through the empress digging out her heart. Then she ripped up the empress from the inside out, her blood splattering all over the place, along with bits of her organs.

Izzy turned to see Momiji

And I saw that her hair was turning black as night. She scowled and the servant dropped the lifeless body of the little boy. I hadn't noticed but Sokiko Takeo Rei and Emiko (the small blue haired girl) had gone to the back of the crowd and had been killing almost all of Sochiro's servants. Now Rei was close to Izzy and one of the minions tried to attack Izzy, Rei blocked it the demon's claws embedding into her heart, and killing her. I could literally feel all the blood drain out of me, as I watched my best friend be killed. Izzy turned around scared and threw a punch at the demon, breaking its weak neck, and killing it. She sank to her knees in between the bodies of the now dead, Momiji and Rei. She buried her face in her hands and Takeo went to her aid. He muttered something to her and she nodded. She placed her hands on the chests of the corpses and closed her eyes. Her hands were covered in black fire, and she began to glow, soon she evaporated, but Momiji and Rei had opened their eyes. Momiji sat up quickly

"Where's Izzy?!" he said panicking. Then there were whispers and everyone went down on one knee facing the same direction. Rei did the same thing and Momiji and I looked in the direction. Emiko said loudly

"All hail the empress!" WHAT THE HELL?! I thought Izzy killed the empress!? I looked over to where the empress was supposed to me, and to my surprise…

Izzy was there. She was the empress. I thought she had died… how are Momiji and Rei alive? She scowled and then looked over at the people from the beginning of this hallucination. Then sudden unbearable pain racked through my body, I felt like I would rather die than live through that pain, then there was nothing but black…

**-Envylamperouge- …k… that was a REALLY long chapter for me (2729 words!) TwT I hope you're happy. Well I did the best I could for the battle scene… TwT please review~… FLYLEAF RULES!- **

**Original post date: 10/18/2009**


	5. elli

**-Elli-**

Everything turned black… then I heard my name being called, I felt like I was being shaken. I opened my eyes. Momiji was in front of me shaking me, and calling my name

"Elli?! Elli are you alright!?" he said nervously.

"I'm fine" I said, barely noticing that we were back at my house and my face was wet. My throat was sore and my head hurt. Damn it! Did I cry again!? Shit! I sighed and squeezed his hand that I barely noticed I was holding.

"Are you sure?" he said sounding worried

"Yes, yes, but are you okay?"

**-Momiji-**

"Yes, yes, but are you okay?" she asked me

"Ya, sure, why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Cause I ruined your day of sightseeing TwT"

I laughed at her logic and I draped an arm around her shoulder she blushed and smiled

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, I'll be here for the next four to six years, so what's the rush?" she smiled. Then her phone started ringing the song world is mine, meiko PV. She laughed and answered it leaving my grasp and the room.

"Momiji and Elli sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g" Haru said in monotone from the other side of the living room. O_o

"Whaa?"

"It's obvious you like her" O_o ?! . Rei stood up and sighed

"Yeah, it's true."

"Where are you going sunshine?" Lelouch said teasingly entering from the kitchen

"I have business to attend to" with that she sulked out of the room.

"Now, onto business!" Lelouch said plopping down next to me on the sofa. Then he poked my side with a serious look on his face

"You like my sister don't you?" o.o

"I can honestly say I'm not sure" O////O my heart belongs to Izzy! So… why is it being stolen so easily? I sighed and went to go see Elli in her room. I looked up at the ceiling while walking down the hall thinking about random things… like Michael Jackson's death. It came all of a sudden and I was planning to go to see his This Is It tour. I sighed and then I walked into Elli. I was knocked back onto the floor and saw that she had fallen too. We laughed and I helped her up

"Is there any way I can make up your touring day Momiji?"

"…umm… sure… lets go out to dinner tonight" she smiled red tinting her cheeks.

"okay :D" at the park when I asked her why she had been screaming this morning, she just froze up looking into space for a while, I got worried to I took her back to her house, then she started screaming again, covering her face with her hands, yelling out something I couldn't understand. She was crying and Rei and the others went to check on her. When I had tried to get close to her she grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go. I would probably have a bruise from that. And as suddenly as she had gone into that state, she was back. It puzzled me.

The rest of the day we did go sightseeing, I saw the Hollywood sign, and went to go shopping on Rodeo drive. Apparently she loves manga and anime. And she has a house in Santa Ana. She says that the place may be dangerous around the area she lived in, but she loved her little home there. I asked her if we could go and on the hour long drive there we got starbucks and Carls Jr. it was fun. The house was near the border to Costa Mesa, where she liked to go to go to see movies, get subway and get stuff at Barnes&noble and starbucks. I laughed and asked her

"Wouldn't it be great if all those things were together?" Her reply

"… They are. At the south coast plaza in Costa mesa O///O" after a moment of silence I laughed. We drove back to her house, and… well… it was… weird…

"…" I said looking at the bright yellow and lime green walls, the black swinging sofas, and the granite counter…

"Shut up" she said turning on the silver plasma screen.

"So this is…?"

"My home away from home! And I love it! Daddy bought it for me back in January 08 :3"

"So… not to be rude, but… are you a daddy's girl? Or have a father complex?" she turned pink and nodded

"I loved my daddy so much"

"Oh… you must have been very upset when he passed away…" she looked up at the ceiling fan

"Strangely, I don't recall their funeral. I don't really recall many things from before mid-may of 2008…"

"Really? Why do you think that is?"

"Don't know. Maybe it's mentally suppressed because so many bad things were happening at that time"

"Like what?"

"Well… I'm not sure... I remember feeling so horribly wretched inside, like my very being was being torn up. Then in that pit of despair, Rei saved me"

"She… saved you?"

"Yes. I had just gotten out of a horrible relationship with a gang head, and he sent his goons after me. They beat me up, and left me for dead in a dark alley. It was the day after my parents died; I was bleeding and waiting for death to come, when Rei appeared at the end of the alley, looking like she had just seen a ghost. She ran to my side and took me to her apartment. She took care of me until I offered her to go back to my house. She became my best friend" she said with a wistful smile.

"You really care for Rei don't you?"

"She's like the sister I've always wanted. Lucy, maria, and Sashuna are like sisters to me as well" Sashuna…

"That's a familiar name…" jut then the creaky metal black door swung open and a woman with white hair and vibrant red eyes and a nervous look in her sleepy eyes

"Good morning Sashuna~!" Elli greeted

"Gumernin **(a/n: she's sleepy so she means good morning)**" she mumbled before crashing onto the sofa.

"Konnichiwa Sashuna-san" I said finally remembering her. I had met her nine months ago when all the Momori's had gathered. She had sat at the very back looking at Sawa-san.

"Ohayo Momitchi-san" she said already sleeping apparently. He laughed.

"Do you know everybody?!" Elli said exasperated

"No :D" I said with a bright smile

":| I don't believe you" Elli said with a ridiculously serious face. I laughed

"I just know Sashuna and Rei from back in Japan"

"Let me guess, Sashuna was related to your girlfriend as well?"

"Yes"

"O_O … ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" I nodded

**-Rei-**

I sulked out of the room, and went to the park of the park that had think trees surrounding it. I opened a portal to the other world, leaping in and landing on the balls of my feet on the cold stone floor.

"You called for me?" I addressed the toddler like girl. She had elbow length fiery red hair and piercing green eyes. She had a black Victorian styled dress, and she was smiling at me

"Rei-Chan" she said softly, but her voice still echoed and bounced off the walls.

"It has come to my attention… a deep feeling in the pit of my stomach… I very much loathe her" I already knew who she was talking about.

"Empress"

"Stop! Rei-Chan you know better than to call me by that title!" I took a deep breath. Sokiko will have my throat for this…

"Izzy-kun" the corners of her lips turned up slightly.

"…well… I have brought you a gift" I said getting something out of the pocket of my own intricate dress. I handed it to her. She stared at it in disbelief.

**-Izzy-**

I stared at it. In my hands was a photograph. Not just any photograph of just anything. It was a picture of Momiji and a few other people. He looked so… _different. _He didn't look childish as I had last seen him. but then again the last time I saw him, it was a year ago, and he was bruised, bleeding, and tears running down his face in a futile attempt to save my life before I tumbled into the underworld and became its ruler. At that time I was actually _glad _to see him like that, not that I enjoyed seeing him injured but I was glad he was _alive. _Glad my plan had worked; my sacrifice had saved his life, and allowed him to be running after me. Now… he was not the boy I knew. There was hidden sadness in his eyes. I didn't like it. I brushed my fingertips along the photo, wishing he was at my side at this moment. I sighed

"Well..?" Rei-Chan asked nervously. I carefully chose a happy mask to show her

"Arigato Rei-Chan" I plastered the biggest fakest smile I could manage, and she believed it so I was off the hook for now. Then I summoned my power, and the black fire engulfed me and I reverted back into my passive form. My hair was the darkest of ebony, and reached to the back of my knees. I had grown to about Rei-Chan's height and my skin was paler now, almost snow white.

"Oh, but Rei-Chan? I do have a question" I said, touching the emerald brooch on my neck. she sat on the floor hugging her knees to her chest

"What is it?" I smiled

"… How… how exactly did you obtain this?" I said motioning to the photo.

"Well… you see~… he… recently moved in with me and the girl you dislike so much" I tensed up. I'm not exactly sure why but I very much dislike that girl. I scoffed

"Elizabeth Iromom!" what the hell is so great about her?! I was seething internally.

"Well, yeah… and this morning… apparently she had the same Alice in wonderland dream as you did" that struck a nerve; that awful, horrid nightmare. More importantly…

"How the hell did she have my dream?! That dream describes my inner most thoughts, and shows the black rebellion!" Rei-Chan looked uncomfortable

"I'm… not that sure" I decided to change the topic

"So he's in America now, ne Rei-Chan?" she nodded a bit

**Review! Or as I have threatened before I will stop posting~ **

**This time I'm serious!**

**Original post date: 10/29/2009**


	6. random filler chapter OMG

**-Momiji-**

"… well… today certainly was… eventful…" I said with a laugh. Elli laughed alongside me, while we were driving down the freeway to get back to her house. Back at her other house as soon as she had mentioned that she was making enchiladas, Sashuna rushed into the kitchen with her to make sure no one got hurt. TwT either way I got hurt. The chili was way too spicy for me. And then after I got burned Lucy and Elli cuddled me… it was weird… Sashuna had stayed on the couch. She had never really been one for physical contact.

Back to the highway!

"so I got my day of touring after all!"

"Yuppers! But hey, do you still want to go out to dinner?"

"yeah!" I said while she laughed. Being around Elli, if even for a few days, had taken its toll on me. I felt the warm ease spread over me, that I hadn't felt in over a year. I felt so comfortable around her, like she was radiating a pleasant feeling. It's weird, and hard to describe it… I guess it that I feel so at ease when I'm near her.

When we got to her house Haru was watching TV in the living room, and Rei was asleep on the couch with the control in her dangling hand. She was drooling and giggling every once and a while.

"When did Rei-Chan get back?" Elli said positioning her friend in a more comfortable looking position on the couch.

"A few minutes ago. She seemed like she was drunk" Haru stated, staring at tomorrow's weather report.

"Ah, that sound like Rei-Chan" there was something about the way she only used an honorific for Rei's name that bugged me. Not that I minded that she didn't use one for me, but that Rei was the only one that got one. Or was it the fact that Elli barely said anything other related to her Japanese heritage.

**-Rei-**

After I had confirmed that Momiji had indeed moved to America to the empress, she completely changed the subject and brought out the recently deceased Michael Jackson. We danced the Thriller and Billie Jean, drank some wine and sake along with Sokiko, Takeo and Emiko. Now… now I have a head ache and I'm lying on the couch checking the weather. Whenever the empress is feeling an emotion strongly it sometimes makes an effect on the weather. I feel asleep as soon as the weather looked ok.

I slightly woke up when I felt someone moving me. I opened my eyes a crack to see Elli moving me on the couch. I wanted to thank her for moving me from that horrid position, but one: my head was killing me. Two: I'm lazy. Three: I'm _sleepy _so I just settled for falling asleep again.

**-Chu-chi-(back in Japan!!!)**

"_**ANE-SAN!!!!!!***_" **(ane-san- respectful term for older sister)** Koharu yelled from the second floor. He was seven now and was **obsessed **with meiko from Vocaloid. TwT why?! Why must I be part of this dysfunctional family!?!?!

"What?!" I called while trying to blow away a stray lock of fiery red hair away from my face, while I was literally elbow deep in washing dirty dishes. The kid bounced down the stairs and with his iPod on full blast playing 'Honey Honey' started tugging at my apron. _**When the fuck did I become a house mom?! **_After Izzy died, I had no one to help me with the house work, and Sawa-san, Makenna, Koharu, Sakura and Nauto, were hopeless by themselves, so thus, I am a house mom TnT damn their stupidity. Damn the fact that Nauto, Sawa-san, and Sakura all share Koharu's brain D:

"c'mon let's go!!!"

"Go where?" I asked exasperated

"You said we would go visit Akii-san*!!!!" **(Akito) **I sighed and answered

"We'll go see Akii-san later, right now I'm busy. Why not see if your real onee-san will take you?"

"No!!!! Onee-san doesn't want to take me neither!!!"

"Sakura?"

"She's studyin' with Nauto sensei!" damn. -_-+ there goes two more possibilities.

"Sawa-san?"

"He's talkin' on the phone wit Sashuna-san!!!" I muttered a curse under my breath. Sakura and Sawa-san had started college this year while I had gotten a job, to make sure the money never ran out. Sashuna had gone to America to study at UCI and had actually met up with Rei. Somewhere deep in my heart I felt as if Rei knew more about what had happened to Izzy, but it wasn't possible. Rei was nearly on the other side of Japan when Izzy had died.

"^_^ hey Koharu?" I said in a fake sweet sugary voice

"Yes, ane-Chan?"

"If I buy you the meiko Vocaloid program you've been asking for will you put off the visit to Akii-san's about an hour or so later?"

"Okay!!!!" I sighed. God I swear he has a mental issue! Oh but he's so cute!!! X3 as soon as I was done with seemingly infinite amount of dishes I went up stairs. On my way to my room I looked at the door to Izzy's room. No one had really gone into her room since she died except the first few days after it happened. I opened the sliding door a bit to be greeted by the comforting mess. I smiled. The same messed up yellow satin comforter, half on the floor, the book shelf with so many photos on it. I walked inside, and looked at the photos. I was staring at the one of her and Momiji. Then I noticed a small bit of paper was sticking out of it. I pulled it out to see a note, in elegant English script I saw what was written

'_if anyone at all is reading this note that it means one of two things… or both .it could mean that I am dead, or that someone has been snooping around in my room _ well either way. I will be dead soon… or I am dead. I'm not good at explaining TwT anyway! This is my will basically:_

_NO ONE TOUCHES MY STUFF!_

_Except chu-chi and Momiji._

_-Izzy Momori_

_P.S. if this is Makenna: I KILL YOU!'_

I stared at the note. She **knew **she was going to die?! And even worse: she was making fun of it! I stood rooted to the spot in shock… until Koharu started crying

"_**ANE-SAN!!!!!"**_ he started wailing. I heard a pair of footsteps racing up the stairs and I figured it was Makenna, but I beat her to Koharu's room where he was hanging upside off the top bunk of his bed. Since the blood going down was already making his face red I pulled him down and set him off the bottom bunk so that he would stop whining. I sighed and left Makenna alone with her little brother. I walked down the hall to my room, with Izzy's note in my pocket.

I slid the door open a crack and slid in. I didn't ever like seeing people enter my sanctuary. Izzy had seen it only twice: once back in March of 2008, when she came in the middle of the night to tell me that our father was dead. I was so devastated when I had heard her say that he was gone. If it wasn't for her I would have been all alone in this world. Our mother was already dead to us but physically died the same day is Izzy. Then a second time when our scars disappeared.

I remember crying. Crying a lot nonstop. And I remember saying "why… why didn't the world die with them?! Why didn't they take me with them?! We could have finally been… a happy family…" dad was gone. Izzy was gone. Then my mom died too. I was alone. Painfully alone. Sure I had my cousins, and my friends, but watching them with their siblings just broke my heart. Momiji understood my pain, if no one else did. He loved her as much as I did, maybe even more. He was the last one to see her alive. I looked at a picture on my nightstand. It was a picture from back when my dad and Izzy were both alive. We all looked so happy.

I sat down on the emerald green satin comforter on my bed and I began to hum a tune that Izzy and I loved when we were children (http:// www. youtube. com/ watch? v=FQyo 88SkrVY [pretend the song existed back then!] ) I smiled and dozed off for a bit.

_***~-dreamland-~***_

There's fire… a lot of it… and in so many different colors too… there's pillars of them… one for blue... one for pink… one for orange… one for green… one for yellow…. And then there was one for black in the center of the others. Then the fire was gone and each one of the pillars place was a person… in place of the pink one was a man with curly dirty blonde hair, and dark brown eyes he looked a bit like Momiji (older Momiji not younger) but with darker hair and eyes. And he looked older, maybe in his mid- twenties

"General Chi Momori" he said standing at attention

Then in place of the orange fire stood a little girl with blue hair

"Emiko Momori, imperial Joker" she said in a sweet voice, and curtsying. She looked about the age of nine. I think I've seen a picture of her before… in place of the white fire stood a girl with long purple hair. She looked sort of like Sakura but see through.

"Sochiro Momori, second princess of hearts" she bowed as well. From the blue fire stood a face I knew all too well… it was Rei.

"Rei Momori, first princess of hearts" she bowed deeply, and then looked over to where the green fire had been. In the place green one was a girl with short white hair, and blue eyes. She had a black Victorian dress

"Sokiko Momori, queen of clubs" she curtsied. From the yellow fire a man with long black hair and cold brown eyes, and twin swords, stood

"Takeo Momori, king of diamonds" they all kneeled to where the black fire had finished evaporating. The half circle faced a girl who was sitting down on the floor

"All hail the empress!" They said. The girl, with the long blood red hair, so similar to my own stood. A smile was beginning to tug at her lips. She brushed her hair away from her eyes to reveal an all too familiar set of emerald green eyes, with lighter flecks near the pupil. She smiled the smiled that haunted my dreams before

"All hail empress Issabella!" Emiko said. _Issabella._ _Izzy_. **My** _Izzy._

**LoL :D that was weird to type~! **

**And I got my first flame(I think?) **

**Well in response to that flame(?) I ask:**

**How exactly is that character a Mary Sue? If you provide good advice that cannot be countered, then I will acknowledge that character as a 'Mary Sue'**

**Review~**

**Original post date: 11/06/2009**


	7. do not! maybe

**-Sashuna-**

Rei is not bad. She has a bad temper when she's around family, but she's really kind, and we had been good friends as children… for a while. While we were still friends I asked her

"Ne, Rei-Chan? How come everyone of the western zodiac has a sibling but you?" she had just giggled, and replied, as if it was the simplest answer in the world

"I have a sibling. No… I have two! Serna-sama, and Sawa-kun!" she licked her lollipop while she swung her legs off the side of the porch. I stared at her.

"Rei-Chan you're a liar!" I accused her.

"I'm not!!! Mama, papa, nii-san, and onee-san got their memories erased by one of the Sohma's!!!" they… they forgot Rei-Chan? I never told anyone except my brother Yuno. He could bring back their memories, but he always followed Serena' orders, and Serena never liked Rei.

I don't know why everyone was so afraid of Rei. Sure it _looked _like she was going to eat Izzy when we were kids… and sure she was in her monster form. But it was still Rei! She was freaking out! She told me before that it burned to be in that form. After that incident Serena banned almost all contact from Rei.

Rei is nice. No matter what anyone says, Rei is nice! If only you could see the warmth in her eyes, when she's around her friends, especially Elli. Or better yet you should see the way Elli talks, and thinks about Rei! To Elli Rei is like a saint, she hates it when people insult Rei, even just al little. If I didn't know better I would say that Rei saved her life to make Elli care for her so much! Thought it's creepy at times, it's mostly funny to watch…

**-sokiko-**

_Duh-nuh-nuh thriller! __La la la! _Damn thriller song… damn Michael Jackson and his catchy songs!

"SOKIKO-SAMA~!!!" o.o no… please don't tell me

""IT'S EMIKO! LET ME IN!!!" T^T why do I have to be a baby sitter for her? I sighed knowing I wouldn't win a fight against her. Well technically I could… but Emiko would cry, and then Takeo would be after me T^T damn soul mates. We walked together to the throne room where the empress.

Issabella Elizabeth Momori or 'Izzy' as she prefers to be called is our empress. She has been destined to be our empress since her birth, and is the most powerful of us all. There are 7 people in line for the imperial throne. The order is as follows

:

Empress of spades- Issabella "Izzy"

King of diamonds- Takeo "take-chan"

Queen of clubs- Sokiko "birdie-sama"

First princess of hearts- Rei "Rei-Chan"

Second princess of hearts- Sochiro "the horrible bitch spawned from worms"

Jester/ joker- Emiko "'Miko-Chan"

Army general- chi "chi-Chan/ General Stupid"

We are all part of the Momori family… so basically our family rules the underworld. Kind of ironic if you ask me. The family, who is barely noticed on earth, is the most respected and feared in the afterlife.

We all have a special power; the empress's is every power. She can do anything than anyone else can. Takeo hardly ever uses his power but when he does it paralyzes his opponent and spreads venom in their body rotting it from the inside out. My power… well it has a glitch you could say… it has two settings. One can heal almost any wound, and the other… I prefer not to talk about… The next most powerful after me is Rei with her illusions. And then it _was _Sochiro with her ability to control people's minds. Then it's Emiko, with her ability to send your mind any place she wants. Then it's chi, he is the army general and has a weaker version of an already existing power that belonged to a man no one seems to be able to find. Chi can change the moods of people (An: LoL I made chi almost a complete rip-off of Jasper Cullen XD)

Along the way to see the empress, we passed by one of the maids. She had short white hair similar to mine, and light blue eyes, lighter than my own. She was my younger sister in life

"Konnichiwa Amaya" I said waving to her. She smiled a bit and acknowledged me

"Good afternoon your highness" I looked ahead once more at Emiko who was skipping and twirling and singing some random song she made up

"_Down in the meadow there's a place~!_

_A place that leads to wonderland~!_

_Where nothing makes sense ever~!_

_But who really cares about sense!?~!" _

Most people refer to this place as wonderland, mostly because as Emiko's song says, nothing makes sense.

"_Izzy-sama is our queen~!_

_So much fun to play with her~!_

_Ta-keo, Rei, and so-ki-ko_

_Are fun to play with to~!!!" _a child's innocence~ Riiiiiiiiiight -_-'

We finally made it to the throne room where the empress was looking at something in her hand. emiko yelled  
"Izzy-sama!!!!!" and it scared the empress and she nearly dropped what she had in her hand, but the golden chain stuck to her finger, and dangling on it was a golden locket she had brought with her when she entered our world.  
"Emiko" she tried to say calmly but there was a tense look to her.  
"Gomenasai Izzy-sama, but I thought you were frozen or something" the empress's face went to a smile, that didn't nearly touch her eyes. She sighed  
"so how are the preparations for rei-chan's birthday next week coming along?"  
"very well my lord. Oh! And Takeo agreed 'not to take the cake' whatever that means..."  
"Yay~! He won't steal my cake~!" she giggled. Her hair had somehow reverted back to her fiery red, while still remaining in her passive form.  
"Ne, mama what's inside that locket? You're always looking at it so I figured it something special. So what's in it?!" the empress looked at emiko, then back at the locket, to emiko, then back to the locket again. She kept doing that for a while until 5 whole minutes had passed.

"_ just tell emiko what's in it mama!"  
"It's... pictures...?"  
"Why didn't you just say that in the first place?" I muttered to myself  
"cause I'm retarded remember?!" she said stifling a giggle.  
"Well even if you are we must go to do our daily rounds" she sighed  
"yes ma'am" she said standing at attention. I smiled.  
**-Izzy-  
**sokiko-chan smiled. We went on our own ways to do our rounds and on the way I stopped to see chi-Chan  
"chi-Chan~!" I said glomping him. He staggered forward, and them some of the soldiers he was training started smirking  
"don't laugh at chi-Chan!" I ordered them. Ah, power. It's so good to have :)  
"what is it you wanted my lord?" he said with a slight smile  
"I came to check on you chi-chan. it's not good to only hang around serious people all the time y'know?" he laughed once and agreed with me  
"ne, ne, chi-Chan~! Have you seen Takeo today?" he looked off into the distance and sighed  
"I'm afraid not my lord"  
"T^T aww! Oh well. Go on with what you were doing" and with that said I walked off through another portal to make sure that Takeo didn't eat my cake.  
Which... HE WAS EATING!  
I grabbed him from the collar and shook him  
"you liar! You said you wouldn't eat my cake!!!"  
well... today was a typical day  
"you bastard!" I said while throwing him into a wall  
**-Elli-  
**after all the embarrassing times Momiji had seen my cry I have made a new resolution! No more crying in front of Momiji!"

**-July 21 2009-**  
the sunlight shines in from my partly open curtain, and hits my eyes. I groan and roll over to my side... but there's nothing there so I fall to the floor and hit my head on the bedside table. T^T stupid table. I walked (more like trudged) to the living room where Momiji was watching cartoons and eating cereal while sitting on the floor.  
"guten morgen Elli!" he said smiling brightly  
"good ... morning Miji" he smiled and turned his attention to my head... well I think it was the _icepack_ on my head ^///^  
"what happened to your head Elli?!" he said getting up and leaning over my short frame (why do I have to be short?!)  
"I fell off my bed again" he and Haru stifled a laugh.  
"It's not funny!" I said crocodile tears slipping past my eyes.

he stopped laughing after a while and then he said  
"but you have to admit it is funny" -_-  
"fine" my phone started ringing the song kagome kagome, by Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka.  
"Bonjour Mary~!" I said answering the phone  
"WHERE'S MY CAKE?!" ^w^'  
"..." I slowly closed the phone, and ended the call (**an: xxxx means she doesn't know what they're saying) **  
"ne, Haru, xxxx xxxx to xxxx us that xxxx and xxxx are xxxx xxxx!" _ I'm not sure of what he mostly said, but Haru said  
"well it's xxxx xxxx" damn my lack of knowledge of Japanese T^T  
"Rei~!" I said trotting to the kitchen  
"can you translate what Momiji and Haru were just saying?"  
"... okay... something about a wedding...?"  
"T///T wedding?"  
**-Momiji-**  
"ne Haru, Kisa called to tell us that Tohru and Kyo are getting married!"  
"Well it's about time" I laughed as Elli walked into the kitchen.  
"You like Elli don't you?" said Haru

"..... um... no?" maybe T///T  
"yes you do" he said smirking.  
"No Haru, I like her as a friend... I guess"  
"liar"  
"I'm not!"  
"yes you are"  
"no I'm not"  
"you are"  
"am not"  
"yes you are"  
"no I'm not!"  
"are too"  
"am not" this exchange went on for another 5 minutes before Rei came and knocked our heads together  
"hey, Rei-chan ne fais pas ça pour eux!" Rei grumbled something and then stalked back into the kitchen then Haru muttered

"you like Elli" and then he ran down the hall a grin plastered on his face while I chased after him.

**Envylamperouge: … yeah… really bored… it sucked! Fear the sucky-ness! X3 okay… so… when Sokiko is talking about the ranks the names in the quotation marks are what Izzy call those people.**

**And emiko's song is set to the tune of Momiji's song :3 **

**And for the note (to Tyler and atsuko): no. the cake is a **_**LIE**_**.**

**Original post date: 11/20/2009**


	8. elli and izzy's birthday

**-Izzy-**

**-July-25-2009-**

^w^+ must. Resist. Urge. To. _**KILL. **_T^T I sat in the corner of the ball room of the palace holding my yellow plush bunny close to me. Stupid party. It's supposed to me my birthday party but I'm the only one not having fun. Rei-Chan had to leave this morning really early to keep up her mortal appearances, so she had to spend the day with _**Elli**_ on _**her**_ birthday today T^T damn Rei and her still-alive-ness! T///T I think I'm getting sick. Emiko had insisted that they throw me a birthday party. AGAIN! It happened last year too and I went along with it for a while. But this time it's horrible. It's the worst thing imaginable. EVER. While I'm stuck in a cold pink frilly castle, Rei gets to go to the sunny beach, and see Momiji in a swimsuit T^T O_O oh my god did I actually just think about that?! T^T damn this pink stuff is making me lose my mind.

I sighed. I _**really**_ hope Elli has a crappy birthday today.

**-Elli-**

The beach! Yay! After Rei-Chan got off of work she took me Momiji, Haru and Lulu o the beach! (**Random authors note!: has anyone noticed I've started spelling Rei's name differently from the -forbidden fruit- series? Somehow it went from Rae to Rei… I think I've been watching to many sailor moon episodes XD) **as I trotted down the beach chasing lulu for stealing my hat, i hit him with a beach ball and he tripped and landed face first into some really fat sunburned guy XD. i was cracking up so much that Rei literally _**dragged**_ me to our spot on the beach. As soon as we got there I raced Momiji into the water, fell, and nearly got taken away by the waves. And that all happened in the first ten minutes of being at the beach :D I was eating chips with Rei who didn't want to go into the water yet. It had been fun… until

"Hey aren't those the harpies hearing towards our guys?" Rei pointed with her coke can. My head turned automatically to the Sohma's and lulu. Sure enough there they were. The harpies; the three most status consumed egotistical Barbies in existence. The only reason why they weren't called the Barbies was because of their laugh. It sounded like a witch's cackle- thus the _harpies. _I glowered at their direction. Blonde bimbos. And they _were _heading to my guys. (**An: the only reason they call them 'their guys' is because they're Rei and Elli's personal friends and don't know many other people. Yet) **I trotted down the steep slope that lead to the water where Momiji was talking to Sandy- the head Harpie, while lulu and Haru looked over his shoulders to see what was happening.

**-Momiji-**

At the beach a girl came up to me while I was tossing around a beach ball with Lelouch.

"Why hello there handsome~" she said in a nasal voice. She looked pretty… I guess… no that's a lie T^T they looked weird…

"Hi" came my simple reply. Lelouch and Haru were already looking over my shoulders at the two similar looking girls behind her. They all had light brown hair, but in different styles, and similar bikini's, but wasn't really paying attention to them. I was waiting for Elli to come back. She was already sliding down the sand coming towards us with an annoyed look on her face

"I haven't seen you boys around here lately"

"We just moved her a few weeks ago" Lelouch said.

"Oooh~! Where from?"

"Japan" we all said simultaneously. Elli included. The girl sneered in Elli's direction

"Well if it isn't Elizabeth, come here to see if you had a chance with one of the hotties?" Elli glared at her and said through clenched teeth

"No, I came to tell them that if they _really _want to have some fun, they should hit you in the face with the ball. You've already had so many nose jobs, what's one more?" they were glaring at each other for a solid minute, until I put my hand on Elli's shoulder.

" elli, vielleicht sollten wir verlassen, um einem anderen Ort jetzt?" *Elli maybe we should leave to another place now?* she looked at me and smiled, while the other girl gaped at me.

"ja, Momiji, so lassen wir diese häßliche böse Hexen hier, um zu brennen" *yes Momiji, let us leave these ugly witches to burn* she smiled darkly and led me and Lelouch and Haru away from the girls

We climbed back to the spot where Rei was sunbathing.

"You saved them?" Rei said in monotone.

"Yup~!" Elli said cheerfully plopping down onto her bright polka dotted towel, while I sat down on the sand

"Saved us?" I asked laughing a bit

"Yes. I SAVED YOU~! Saved you from the evil hawk like clutches of the harpies~!!!!! *insert slightly evil laugh*" Lelouch, Rei, Haru and i laughed with her. Then she lied down on the sand.

**-Elli-**

I fell down on the sand.

"If you don't get up soon, I'm gonna throw this soda at you" I laughed again and sat up straight again. Rei giggled and reached into her bag. She stopped abruptly

"σκατά ξέχασα να της δώσει το παρόν" she scowled

"what's wrong Rei-Chan?"

"… nothing." She stopped going through her bag and looked out to the water again

"αυτή θα δεχθεί ακόμη το δώρο αύριο ... δεξιά?" she mumbled. Again I didn't know what she was saying

**-Rei-**

"σκατά ξέχασα να της δώσει το παρόν" *shit I forgot to give the present to her* I scowled

"what's wrong Rei?" Elli asked innocently

"…nothing" besides the fact that I left my empress in a horrid pink frilly party, forgetting to give her, her birthday present. I looked back at the ocean

"αυτή θα δεχθεί ακόμη το δώρο αύριο ... δεξιά?" *she'll still accept the gift tomorrow... right?*I doubt it… I sighed. Damn I'm stupid. When I left the underworld the pained defeated look on Izzy-sama's face made me feel so upset. I knew she disliked Elli, and here I go leaving her in the midst of a frill fest to spend the day with said girl! The guilt! The horrible guilt!

_**Then I realize…**_

I've fallen asleep with my head on lulu's lap… o.o I scream and slap him. It's only natural reflexes! :D right…..? I clamber backwards and stumble onto Haru's lap. Again I scream and crawl away to hide behind Elli. Q_Q

"Rei~!!!!" she exclaimed

"You're finally up!"

"Finally?"

"Yeah you fell asleep for an hour" Momiji said after putting his soda can down.

o.o

"A…. an… hour?"

"ja~!" Elli said animatedly.

"What… time is… it?" I asked groggily.

"Umm…." Elli said rummaging for her phone in her beach bag

"… 2:35" o.o

"Two… thirty… five" I repeated the numbers slowly

"OMG POKEMON JUST STARTED!" (**A/n: I have no idea when pokemon starts…) **I scrambled to a stand and ran to the car. WHY DID THE CAR HAVE TO BE SO FAR AWAY?! T^T

*ten minutes later* stupid beach. It HAS to be far away from the car?!

*Ten MORE minutes later* (I think)

The car TwT I'm finally at my car… Elli Momiji Haru and lulu are behind me with the towels, beach ball my bag and the cooler.

"It is now… 3:01" Haru says in monotone. o_e

"_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**_ T^T I sobbed exaggeratedly as I was pushed onto the concrete. I sobbed exactly like that on the car ride home, on the way into the hose, and for a while on the couch

"Ne, ne, Rei-Chan?" Sashuna said sitting down next to me.

"Oh hi Shuna-san! ^w^" Elli said enthusiastically … hey… when did Sashuna get here?

"Q_Q *sniffle* hi"

"B| you missed pokemon again didn't you?"

"… Yes TwT"

**-Elli-**

Rei cried for an hour and a half for missing pokemon. She wouldn't even stop when I told her they were having a marathon… she wouldn't stop until I called Sashuna to come calm her down. For some reason she really pays attention to Sashuna more than anyone else. **(AN: the reason Rei respects Sashuna so much is because she looks and acts like Sokiko who is Rei's superior in the underworld) **I sighed. Momiji and Haru said hi to her and then I started talking to her

"Shuna-san, how come you wouldn't go to the beach with us today?"

"i… Err…. Well… um… um………… uh"

"She had to go to work!" Rei said

"… yeah… sure! Let's go with that! :D"

**-Momiji-**

After Haru and I said hello to Sashuna we started walking to our rooms. On the way there Haru nudged my side

"Ne, Momiji. Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did" I said with a laugh.

"… okay… can I ask you another question?"

"You did it again~!" this time he laughed with me

"Fine. Can I ask you _two _more questions?"

"You have one left~!" he laughed

"So you like Elli. Right?" /////

"……" it took a while for me to respond

"…" okay… maybe a little _more _than a while…

"… …" … no comment

"…"

"Momiji!"

"Wah?!" I exclaimed while walking into an open door.

"_ huh?"

"Do you like Elli? Yes or no?"

"… ///"

"Miji…"

"///// yes" I said as quietly as possible. I did like Elli, but I felt bad about it. I still cared for Izzy so much…

"Momiji, if you like her why is it so hard to say it?" Haru inquired

"…" I looked down at the floor

"Momiji. She's been gone for a year already. I'm sure she would want you to move on" his words made the hole in my chest ache again. It was getting easier to bear since we moved here.

"… I know" I said silently.

"Besides. If you were the one to die, wouldn't you want her to move on with her life and be happy?" I sighed, and nodded

"Yeah. You're right Haru"

"Good! So the decision is final. Tomorrow you're going to go out with Elli!" O.o

"When did you decide that?!"

"As soon as I saw you hug her this morning" o.o

"Damn you Haru TwT" he laughed at this and then I realized we had been standing outside of our rooms for quite a while. I laughed along with him

"Well I'm not so sure about the date Haru. I'm not sure if she likes me or not anyway"

"By god man! You're dense! If a tack is sharp, you're the thing farthest from it!" (**An: credits for those two lines go to Shigure TwT XD) **

"^w^' you've been hanging around Shigure too much" we both laughed at that.

"But seriously Miji, you haven't noticed the way she acts around you?" … no… not… really…

"… Yes…?" damn. It came out sounding like a question (**an: has anyone noticed I've made Momiji start saying cuss words since –rebirth- started? I barely noticed right now… o.o) **

"You liar. Well she blushes a lot, and stammers a lot, and becomes a real ditz. Like Tohru was around Kyo" O.o

"O…k…"

**-Envylamperouge- it sucked 8D it just did. Well I won't be updating for a while (ever) because:**

**1. CST's are coming up and I'm terrified o.o**

**2. no one reviews.**

**3. I'm lazy.**

**4. I told myself I wasn't going to update until the chapter I'm writing right now (17) was completed. Damn writers block TwT**

**And: 5: I'm working on a fanfiction exchange me and two of my friends are doing. kaguraXmomiji FTW!**

_**REVIEW~!**_

**OK bye-bye 8D**

**Original post date: 12/07/2009**


	9. rei and emiko

**-Izzy-August 31 2009-**

_Tick-tock _goes the clock. _Tick-tock _I stare at it for a long while. Today is my first day of college. Because I died before I finished school, Sokiko, Takeo, and Rei-Chan insisted that I go to school now. I didn't need to finish my second year of high school, but I did need to do my third. Now I'm in college. And I have to wear a uniform TT^TT but I like it :D … a bit… well… I like the bowtie. A bit.

I'm not really paying attention to Mr. Wilson. It's my last class of the day, choir. It's boring as hell, the songs are crappy, the class room is cold, the students are bratty, the teachers' voice is wretched, and it feels like the longest class I have. And I learned all that from ONE day.

I glance up at the clock once more. 2:59. only a minute more.

_Tick-tock, Tick-tock, Tick-tock _the muted digital bell rings and I rush out of the class to the nearest portal leading me to the main hall where Amaya, one of the servants, will be there to pick me up. I don't see here there, instead I see a girl with short shoulder length spiky blue hair, with a pearl head band, and pearls scattered about in her hair. Her hair looked damp, and slightly sandy like she had recently come out of the ocean, but her dress was as dry as the dessert that Rei-chan tried to make once (it had been meant to be a cake, but was burnt to ash… poor cake…) the top of her dress was made completely out of pearls. The straps and half the top of the torso, but the bottom of the torso, was white satin, and the, bottom of the dress was made of thin thread like black strands. In her arms was a plain doll, sown up very badly, with and evil look shadowed on it. I knew she wouldn't let go of that freaking doll if her life (whatever it is) was at stake

"Emiko-Chan!" I said rushing over to hug her

"Mama!" she said nearly dropping her doll. Ever since I had made her that doll (a very poor attempt I was forced to do for home Ec class), she hasn't let go of it. That really saying something since she loses all of her other toys, yet she's kept that doll for over a year!

I smiled as I held her in my arms. Surely enough Takeo was close by. He was always watching out for her. Stupid soul mates -_-' i laughed and followed Takeo to the portal we would take to get to the castle. A while after I had arrived in the underworld i learned that it was nothing like what its name lead to. It is not a world under the earth; it is a separate world all together, in another dimension, where mostly only spirits are allowed. The sun shines, we have water, and we have everything that earth has, but better. There is no disease, no pollution, nothing really bad except the people, but everyone gets their own 'slice of heaven' of guess you can say. It is a small side dimension where all your desires are fulfilled. Everyone has one, but some people cross over into others, and people can go to other dimensions to see who they want to see. I've been to the dimension where my father and mother's soul went to. It's like a sunny island, with pristine white sand, and lush vegetation. But i don't like to go there. It makes me sad...  
we arrived at the main room of the palace. It's made of carved stone, and when the room is lit, it looks absolutely stunning, but looks creepy when it's dark. The black rebellion had been held in this room. The lights were out, and the reason so many people where going in was because of a scheduled meeting.  
The black rebellion had been written into the history books as soon as it was done.  
_-Flashback-earlier this morning-history class-_  
Motoko-sensei was droning about the fierce warrior that the empress was. One of the males in the class whined  
"how come almost all of the members of the royal court are girls?" then i said (mostly to myself)  
"the reason they are mostly girls is because, the souls from 'final life' where chosen by the gate keeper for their abilities in previous lives. Some say their souls were the original spirit keepers" apparently the whole class heard me  
"oh really now?" the boy said. Ha ha he sounded like he was saying ORLY NAO?  
"And how would YOU know about it?" 'For my protection' Sokiko made Rei-chan cover up my aura, so that no one suspected i was the empress. They just think I'm a random soul  
"because, i have studied exclusively under Sokiko-chan herself"  
"Sokiko-CHAN? You disgrace her so?"  
"actually, i can call her what i want, and she can't do anything about it" i said with a smirk. The entire class was in shock. She was the queen of the afterlife and here i go calling her Sokiko-CHAN. HA!  
"Someone get a guard in here!" one of the guards stormed in.  
"she insulted the queen!" he said pointing at me  
"i did not insult Sokiko-chan. in fact, she told me that she prefers it when i call her that"  
"liar" one of the students bellowed. The guards laughed. Out right LAUGHED  
"of course she can call the queen that! She can do whatever she pleases."  
"Thank you, chi-chan" i said smiling.  
"Of course, your highness" he said bowing and leaving with the other two guards. In an authoritative voice and with the entire class gawking at me i said  
"the empress can do what she wants. You are her loyal subjects are you not? If you follow her rule than you will obey be. Motoko-sensei, please resume the lesso-"  
"hold it! We follow the empress, NOT YOU!"  
"Silence, you impudent soul"  
"how dare you?"  
"How dare i? I dare like this" i said punching him in the gut and knocking him backwards  
"why do you complain about the royal court being mostly girls? They all do a great job, (except for Sochiro) and have managed to keep all worlds intact"  
"then what about Sochiro then?" he managed to say  
"Sochiro was no more that a spoiled child, who needed to be punished by the empress's hand." the class was still staring at me  
"and the empress isn't that great. She never even wanted to be in charge. She would rather have her mortal life back"  
"how can you say that about her?"  
"Because. I know her. I am closer to the empress than you will ever be, and she has told me this herself. You've gone now and pissed me off you faggot." i called for chi-chan and he escorted the boy to Emiko.  
_-end flashback-_  
with Emiko still in my arms i asked her  
"so what did you do with the boy?" she giggled and said  
"i threw him where all the other bad toys you send me are" o.o  
"Emiko-chan you do know they're not toys right?" she laughed again  
"yes~ Emiko was only playing with you, mama"

O_O

… ...

"… oh… Ok"

She giggled and then we were at her room. Her room looked like the farthest wall was merging into a beach. Her bed was small and looked like it was made out of sea foam. I remember once I asked her about why she loved the ocean so much

**-Flashback-**

"Emiko-Chan, how come you like the ocean so much?" we were staring out at the beach

"Because. When I was a mortal, I lived near the beach. My mama loved it so much there. And her boyfriend too… and Suki… she didn't like it that much. But I absolutely adored it whenever we went to the water. It was so peaceful, and mama would take me exploring the caves, and we found so many little critters. It was amazing!" she smiled a smile that was rare. It was a peaceful smile, with a caring look on her face. It was the look she had when she was thinking about her mother. I had asked her then

"Why do you call _me_ mama?" she was caught off guard by this. She clutched her doll closer to herself and said very quietly

"Because. When mama died, she left me behind, not only in the mortal world but in the afterlife too. She chose to go to the final life. Her boyfriend went there too. They kept on being reborn, and I would see her when she died, but she would ignore me and leave me again. He did the same thing too; he left me behind, but Suki became the gate keeper's assistant. But mama's soul has that same warm fuzzy feeling every time she comes here. And when you came here, back the first time when you only knew Sochiro, I felt that fuzzy feeling and I wanted to cling to you because… in a previous life, you really were my mother" she smiled up at me and I wrapped my arms around her. So she started calling me mama, and I let her. I still don't understand _why_ I let her though…

**-Rei- august 31-**

Momiji and Elli went to their first day of school today :3 which means... I HAVE THE HOUSE ALL TO MYSELF! YAY! XD X3 :3 :) :| :( which means i have to do all the cleaning from now on... T^T curse them. This stupid house is HUGE and Lulou and Haru won't help me clean so i have to clean all the rooms now... chit :[ chit chit chitity chit chit

I sighed and got started with my own room

-60 minutes later-

Done! FINALLY! :) Now... onto Elli's room!

Ehmigawdheroomiswaaaycleanerthatmine! O____O woooooow i swear i saw it sparkle! My jaw dropped at the cleanliness. How the hell can she have it this clean! I grumbled and moved onto Haru's room. His black satin sheets were scattered all over the floor and clothes strewn everywhere... 'Back away Rei, just... back... away' i thought to myself as i left his room. I didn't want to incur the wrath of Haru for accidentally 'misplacing' one of his shirts... i went to the next room which was Momiji's. His room was all clean except for a pillow which looked like it was hiding something. Curiosity got the best of me and i looked at what was behind it. It was a picture of Izzy-sama from before she became our empress. I felt bad for him. I knew that he liked her a lot, and he still has a picture of her… I placed the photo back and left the room. Now to face… the all dreaded… room… of… Lulou T^T

I stood outside the door for a solid fifteen minutes before gathering the courage to face the room… well… to face the sea of decay… T^T I'm scared… I put one foot in the room… and then took it out and I ran away to the bathroom, to go clean anything OTHER than Lulou's room T^T

"Ne Rei-Chan~! Have you cleaned my room yet~?" Lulou asked poking his head through the door

T^T

"Go clean it yourself you damn ingrate!" I threw a sponge at him and it almost went into his mouth… I was aiming at his chest T^T I have horrible aim X3

"Aww~! Rei-Chan's a meanie~!" o_e

"Don't you have to go to work or something?"

"Nope! I don't start until tomorrow!" he said sticking his tongue out at me. I swear sometimes he could be such a child :P XD X3 :3 :) :| :( why is he still looking at me?

"Ne Rei-Chan? Do you want to go out to lunch later?" NO! HELL NO! I've already been out with you! Worst experience of my life! ... Then why did my face feel hot and why did I stammer when I replied

"… y- Ye- Yes…!" T///T shame!

I followed him out the door admiring how glossy and nice his raven hair looked. O_O oh my god, did I actually think that? He looked back at me with curious amethyst eyes.

"What's the matter Rei-Chan?"

"O/////O nothing!" I said speed walking ahead of him on the way to the movie theater.

He laughed and chased after me, and wrapping my arms around me when we were next to an alley.

I lied. The time I spent with Lelouch was not bad. Annoying, but fun and happy. And when he hugged me, that was the last time I was allowed to see him. He had most of his memories of me erased, and now… it happened again. I felt the blue flames encircle me as I ran into the alley. I transformed into a phoenix. And he saw it. he saw me. With wide eyes he stammered

"… r- Rei?"

**-envylamperouge: ok I made this update as compensation for not updating the previous chapter for so long ;A; so… yeah… filler, emiko/Rei based… drama… cliffhanger…. I was bored…. Envylamperouge OUT!- **

**Oh! And I discovered that~ people actually read this!**

**O.o why don't I get reviews then?**

**You all suck D **

**I lied D: I didn't mean it! (Except for Tyler and Atsuko)**

**Please Q_Q review~**

**I'll give you a virtual cookie if you do :D**

**But if you can't reach it, it's not my fault!**

**Original post date: 12/12/2009**


	10. BIRD! and i'm not short!

**-Elli- august 31-**

Today was my first day as a college girl! Whoop! XD it was fun! And I went to taco bell for lunch! XD when Momiji and I got back from school there was a note on the kitchen counter from Rei-Chan

_Went out to a movie with Lulou. I don't know where Haru is. Don't ask about Lulou . I kill you later_

_-Rei_

I smiled.

"Where's Rei?" Momiji asked from the kitchen

"She's on a date with Lulou~! XD" Momiji and I started laughing a lot.

"So she still likes him?"

"I guess so" just then the door burst open and Rei-Chan ran inside with just her light cotton dress on, no shoes, not her hat or necklace or anything else she usually wore. She ran past us and down the hall. A second later Lelouch ran in to

"Lulou! What happened to Rei? She seemed upset" he looked in her main direction and stammered

"r- Rei! She! - A bird! BIRD!"

**-Momiji-**

"r- Rei! She! - A bird! BIRD!"

'_Rei-Chan is the phoenix if the western zodiac'_

Oh no… does this mean that he saw her transform?

"She! There was fire! And then a bird! She's a bird!" I ran down the hall to find Rei. I knew that it was frightening when someone thought of us as monsters because of the curse. I heard her quietly sobbing behind one of the bathroom doors. I opened it quietly and saw her curl up in the corner crying. In the short months I knew Rei she never cried. And I never expected her to. She seemed like the person who would rather laugh that cry at anything.

"Rei, what happened?" I said kneeling down beside her

"He *hic* saw me" she wiped away some of her tears and continued

"We *hic* were on the way *hic* to the movies *hic* and he hugged me *hic* I forgot to wear my charms *hic* today and I *hic* transformed *hic*" I draped an arm around her to comfort her, but I didn't want to let her transform again so I kept a slight distance

"It's alright Rei; it's not the end of the world"

"You didn't see the way he looked at me! He was absolutely terrified of me!" she continued sobbing

"It happened again"

"Again?"

"The last time… it was two years ago… that day when I attacked you and Izzy…"

"…" I was taken aback by this

"What happened that day?"

"He was walking me over to the Momori estate , and it began to rain…" she stopped then

'_She's nice. When you don't try to befriend her. Ignore her and she won't hurt you. That's the thing with her. She doesn't like being too close to anyone. It only causes pain' _is this what Izzy meant by that?

She stopped crying and screamed

"I hate this! This is exactly why I hate getting close to people!" she pushed me away and stood up.

"But you seemed to like hanging around us before"

"But it's hard" she whispered

"I'm not _accustomed _to being around people. Because of the curse I was isolated from my own family. I loved Lulou, but after he found out that day…"

**-Rei-**

_-flashback-_

Lelouch was walking me to the estate.

"Ne Rei-Chan how come you never let me hold you?" I tensed up

"I'm… claustrophobic…"

"I don't believe you~!" he said poking my side. I giggled and pushed him away

"Well believe it lover boy" he laughed and tried to hug me

"No Lulou! I'm serious!" then he really did hug me. I felt the pop of the transformation and the look on his face. It was terrified. I looked down. My feathers were scarlet… it wasn't normal. We were in a small clearing when this happened and I felt like I was going to cry. He started to run away. I tried to call out to him, but I was interrupted by a little kid screaming. It was a little boy and he was running to the estate and away from me. With Lelouch gone and that boy most likely going to tell who ever was at the estate

A little while later while I was trying to clear my head a voice filled my head

"Rei… long time no see" it was from two people.

"I'm not here to hurt you. Just the opposite. I'm here to help" Again it was from two people. One of them I saw. It was Izzy, but the second voice was Sochiro. In my head trying to gain control of my body. She managed to succeed. The actions that took place after that were hers. Not my own. (**An: go to chapter 12 of forbidden fruit to see what happened because I'm too damn lazy to go copy paste and edit the p.o.v TwT)**

Then Sochiro uncontrolled me, I was pinned to the ground my Yuki and Kyo and she went to go make a deal with Izzy… I could have stopped it…

_-End flashback-_

"But after he found out that day… he got his memory erased. I never saw him after that until when he moved in here. And he started liking me again and… I guess my feeling never went away… and I guess it's selfish of me but I don't want him to forget this time…"

**-Elli-**

**(Random AN: . so much p.o.v. changing!)**

I led Lelouch to the couch and sat him down.

"Explain clearly and slowly what happened"

"Rei-Chan turned into a bird!" my eyes widened. And then I punched him in the arm

"Don't say such things about Rei-Chan!"

"But she did! Look!" he took out his phone and showed me a video

"I remember that she didn't like hugs so I wanted to get her reaction on tape and THIS happened" the video started playing. It was from the angle he was at. It was shaky but it was there. He had hugged her and then there was fire and she moved into the alley, the strange blue fire ebbing away to reveal a large beautiful bird with golden wings and light blue eyes.

"Rei… Chan…?" she… she turned into a bird…

**-Rei-**

After I stopped crying a thought popped into my head. What if Elli believes Lelouch? Would she think I was a monster too? Would she not want to see me again? I gasped

"What's wrong Rei?" Momiji asked me from the floor

"Lelouch. Elli… what is he tells her?" I panicked and ran out of the bathroom and to the living room… he was showing her the video of my transformation (that I didn't even know he _**had**_!)

"Rei… Chan…?" she saw it too… there was a ripping feeling in my chest

"She's so…" repulsive. Disgusting. Freak of nature.

"Cute :3" O_O …. What?

"… but she turned into a bird" Lelouch said D8 don't kill the moment you fag!

"But she's a cute bird :3"

"But she turned into an animal"

"And what exactly is so wrong with turning into an animal? If I turned into a lion, which I admit would be totally badass, that wouldn't mean I was a bad person"

"She kept a secret from you"

"… okay… that makes me slightly self conscious that she wouldn't trust me q_q … but either way I would have kept this kind of thing from people too!"

"O.o she turned into a bird. And she was on fire"

"So you admit she's hot~! XD" Elli said cracking up. O.o she just turned one of my most well hidden secrets into a joke and Lelouch is still in shock… O.O

"=_=' she turned into a bird for crying out loud!"

"But Rei-Chan is still Rei-Chan and I don't think she meant us any harm at all so why should we care? Plus I think she was upset at your reaction" Lelouch looked disappointed

"I'm just shocked that she would keep such a thing from me"

"Did you not hear yourself talking?"

"It's unnatural, sinister-!"

"Cursed?" Momiji ended. Lelouch and Elli noticed us in the hall way for the first time, and they looked ashamed

"… " was Lelouch's rebuttal

"And Elli's right I doesn't matter if Rei turns into an animal"

"μόνο επειδή έχετε μετατραπεί σε ένα ζώο πολύ ~!" *only because you turned into an animal too!*

"Huh?" they said simultaneously

"You know what I said bunny-boy _"

"^_^ looks like Rei is back" Momiji announced

"Εξακολουθώ να πω καλούμε Hatori-sama να διαγράψει τις αναμνήσεις τους" *i still say we call Hatori-sama to erase their memories* Momiji still got the gist of what I meant by the word 'Hatori' he knew I wanted their memories erased. I sighed.

"well Rei-Chan why were you so upset?"

"…" because if you know then Serena will undoubtedly find out and have your memories erased… she'll have them erase _all _of your memories of me instead of just the ones of today… I don't want that to happen… you're one of my first real (and alive) friends… o.o wow… so sappy…

"You're not going to answer us are you?"

"/ I have my reasons!"

**-Momiji-December 15-**

I walked back out into the hall. I don't know why Elli complains about the weather now a day, it was a lot colder in Japan. It's pretty warm for December though

"Stupid global warming!" Rei yelled throwing the control at Lelouch.

"Ow!"

"Shut up!" :) yup things are normal as always.

"Hey where's Ell-"

"BOO!" she yelled from behind me. I screamed (… it was NOT like a girl… maybe TwT)

"God damn it! It's the middle of December and it's still warm outside! What the fucking hell!" the day after Lelouch found out about Rei being cursed, he didn't seem to remember anything about it…

I haven't asked Rei if she knows anything about it… but I'm pretty sure she does…

With Elli on my back (she jumped on there when she scared me) I walked into the kitchen to get my breakfast. Elli and I had gone on a date… we were forced to do so by Rei Haru and Lulou…

Yeah…. Forced… let's go with that… /

"Miji~! Can you reach the cereal for me?" he asked trying to reach it from the highest cupboard, but her arms were too short

"I can't or you'll fall"

"Will not"

"Will to"

"Not"

"To"

"Not"

"To"

"Not"

"Fine" I let go of her and she fell onto the floor screaming

"Told you so" I said trying not to laugh

"I wasn't ready!"

"Riiiight~" she laughed and held out her hand for me to help her up. After I did she said:

"Momiji, I you want to go on a date later?" O_O that was blunt

"Ok!" I said a bit too cheerfully. She laughed at that and then tried to reach the cereal I had forgotten to get for her. It was way out of her reach so after a few minute of watching her struggle (which was sort of [really] funny…) I grabbed it and handed it to her

"I've never noticed you were so short" I said teasing her

"/ shut up! I'm not short! You're just … freakishly tall!" I had to laugh at this. So being 5'10 makes me freakishly tall? Fine. Being '2 makes you short. So there. (**an: does this mean I'm **_**really**_** short?)**

"Fine, fine, fine I'll stop saying that you're… short"

"Shut up~!" she punched my arm

… Or at least _tried _to…

I didn't feel a thing though.

"Du Schwein!" *you bastard* I laughed

"Sie schön groß-"

"I'm beautiful?" translation for the last line Elli said: you tall beautiful-!

"O/O I said no such thing!"

"Did too"

"Shut up!" she yelled into my chest muffling the noise somewhat I laughed

"WILL YOU TWO JUST ADMIT YOU LIKE EACH OTHER ALL READY?" Lelouch and Rei whispered (loudly) from the doorway. I liked Elli. I liked her a lot. She was like the sun **(A: N: no it's not twilight related god freaking damn it Lucy!)** she was like a healing balm toward by broken heart. **(An: shut up Lucy I know you're laughing! _) **I hadn't felt this… way… in a long time

Elli got mad at them and chased them around the house (well mostly Rei because Lelouch tripped of the doorway…)

"You _still _haven't admitted you like her?"

"….. I have no comment" I said snickering while leaving the room

**-Envylamperouge- LAME! I knows it T^T I won't mind if you hate me for the awfulness of the chapter… ;A; ANITCLIMACTIC! TwT please forgive me…-**

**I didn't post this on fanfiction for… forever… because the day before I was going to post this along with the second chapter of my new story I got grounded TwT for…. EVER. **

**REVIEW~ and I shall love you forever :3**

**Original post date: 12/23/2009**

**LoL last post of 2009!**


	11. a new person and it was fun

**-Izzy- December 25 2009-**

o.o … words do not describe what I am feeling at this moment. Well maybe a few… like… _holy _and… **mother **and… fucking and…. _**SHIT**_

O_O

**-unknown person as of yet- 10 minutes earlier-**

I walked down the halls hurrying to get to the main office of the academy where I was called to. My long blonde bangs got onto my face so I pushed them back to my strawberry blonde hair. My wavy hair changed to a bright shade of red in different lights, but otherwise it stayed blonde. I sighed and passed by a few people who were taller than me by a few feet. Sure I could change into a teenage body but I'm in a first year class so I stay looking like an eight year old… I open the door and see the queen of clubs Sokiko, and the king of diamonds Takeo.

_**SHIT**_. What the hell did I do that was so wrong?

"Hello miss…?" the queen said

"I don't have a name" I don't. souls that are orphaned in the afterlife are never given a name unless they have chosen one for themselves, but I have not… even though it's been almost two years since I arrived here…

"Well we've come here for a reason" the king said

"We've been looking for you for the longest time" the queen said

Seriously? What the hell did I do that was so wrong?

"Y… yeah?" I said in a quivering voice

"We've come to take you home with us princess" they said in sync.

WHAT?

"Whaa?"

**-Rei-**

Son of a bitch I have to go to the underworld for something important and miss out on Christmas! God damn it! I want to open my presents damn it!

I waited outside of the main office of Izzy-sama's sister elementary school. Sokiko-san and Takeo-san came out with a girl with medium length blonde curly/wavy hair but with long straight bangs and hazel eyes. I didn't pay much attention to her

"Rei open the portal to where the empress is please" I sighed and opened a portal to the living room in the castle.

"Who's the girl you brought?" I asked Sokiko-san while the girl was staring around the room.

"She's… you'll see in due time…" then the empress walked in

"Is that one of Emiko's friends?" Izzy asked with a dumbfounded expression.

"No…" Sokiko-san said

"She's… Izzy-sama, this girl is your daughter" every head in the room (except Sokiko and Takeo) snapped to Sokiko

"_**WHAT?"**_

**-Izzy-**

o_e

I…

I… have…

I have… a…. daughter…

And… she… she… she looks so much like _him_

I stared at her

"… What's her name?" I asked breaking the awkward silence

"I… I don't have a name" by god! She even sounds like him!

"Well… can I give you a name? :3" she smiled so brightly at me. Even her smile is like his… damn…

"Ok!" she's enthusiastic like him too… shit….

"…"

"…"

"… / stop staring at me!" I said, blushing for reasons I don't quite understand

"SORRY! /" she said turning a bright shade of red that rivaled my hair.

"_ your name will be Lacey. Deal with it" she giggled. GOD DAMMIT SHE EVEN GIGGLES LIKE HIM! T^T

"You mean Lacey as in the singer of flyleaf Lacey Mosley?"

"You… you know flyleaf o.o?"

"Of course!" I trapped her in a tight hug

"You're so cute!" then a high piercing scream ripped through the castle. I let go of lacey and ran over to emiko who was now bawling her little eyes out.

"Emiko, emiko sweetie what's wrong?" I asked trying to comfort her

**-Emiko-**

**(An: have I done emiko's p.o.v before this time?)**

I walked into the main room where Sokiko told us to meet for something important, I'm late but I had to finish some after school activities. I opened the door silently and then I saw her. A girl I had seen around school a few times but never really paid too much attention to. I don't think she had a name.

She's mama's daughter… NO! No! She can't be! She's MY mama! Not that girls'!

"You're so cute!" mama said trapping her in a hug. _**NOOOOOOOO! **_I screamed. Mama ran over to me and tried to comfort me, but I was already crying. NO! YOURE MY MOM! DON'T GET NEAR THAT OTHER GIRL! I wanted to yell, but I could only scream and cry. MAKE HER GO AWAY! DON'T EVER GET NEAR HER AGAIN! GET RID OF HER! YOU'RE MINE! I cried and cried and cried. When I was mortal I had to share mama with papa and Suki. Now that I finally have her all to myself I have to share her with that stupid insignificant girl! She's mine god damn! Mine, _mine, __**mine, **__**mine, MINE!**_

**-Lacey-**

The princess, emiko, started crying when I hugged my new 'mother' she was throwing a fit, hitting my 'mother's' chest as she yelled and cried while my 'mother' and the king of diamonds Takeo tried to console her, but she wouldn't _stop_. Is this my fault? Or does she always act this way?

"… Is it… my fault?" I asked quietly to no one in particular

"Most likely" the first princess of hearts answered

"Emiko see's Izzy-sama as a mother and probably sees you as a threat"

I haven't been here five minutes and one of the princesses already hates me ;A; that doesn't feel fair…

**-Elli-**

"Where's Rei-Chan?" I cried out. I had just spent half an hour looking throughout the house for her to no avail T^T

"I think she said she had to go to work for some emergency thingy" Momiji said from the living room

"Today? But it's Christmas! Where the hell does she work anyway!" I yelled

"I dunno. Aren't you supposed to know?"

"T^T she never told me"

"O_O ok the… that's not weird at all…." He said turning back to the TV

"Momiji let's go out!" I said draping my arms around his shoulders from utter boredom.

"Err… um… sure…" he said. His face was turning red

"Are you sick?" I asked putting my hand up to his forehead. He didn't feel that warm…

"I- i- I'm fine! Really Elli!" he said trying to pull away from me

"… If you say so…" but I'm still worried…

We ended up going to watch new moon, and making fun of the way Bella acted like such a pathetic girl around Edward… though I preferred jasper out of them all. Especially when he said 'I …think it would be nice… not to want… to kill you… every time I see you' but I LOVED the part when Bella falls off the motorcycle and lands on her face xD :P but I liked going to Barnes & noble, subway and jumba juice later :D xD I got my new bleach manga book! And I saw a book called 'code geass' … I'm scared… the main character has the same name and looks like my brother o.o … but Lelouch from code geass is much cooler XP

"Ne Momiji" I said outside of jumba juice

"Hnn?"

"It's been half a year since you guys moved into my house, I realized, and I still barely know anything about you"

"Heh heh"

"So tell me about yourself!" I said tugging at the cuff of his sleeve

"my name is Momiji Sohma, I was born and raised in Japan, I'm half German, I started playing the violin at a young age, my blood type is O, I'm 5'10, I went to Kaibara high and now am currently attending the musicians institute in los Angeles" I pouted

"I already know all those things!" I accused him. He laughed and then said

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

"… Your favorite color"

"Red"

"Food"

"Chocolate"

"Movie"

"Can't decide"

"Song"

"Last night, good night, the Kagamine Len version"

"Animal"

"Lion"

"What's your biggest secret?"

"If I told you it wouldn't be a secret anymore now would it?" he said with a smirk. O.o Momiji can smirk?

"… Okay then… so how do you like living at my house so far?"

"It's really fun! But right now I sorta miss the snow…"

…

"…" was my reply

…

"I know! We could go to big bear for new years!"

"… Didn't I tell you?" he said after a minutes

o.o

"Tell me what?"

"Haru and I are going back to Japan for our cousin's wedding and new years"

O.O

"No, you did not tell me that you were leaving" .o. (look at it upside down Lucy =_=)

"I didn't? Hmm, I thought for sure I did"

"_ well you didn't" he laughed

"Well, would you like to come along with us for new years?" .o.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it would feel weird not having you around for a week" he said smiling. I smiled back at him.

"… o.o … but my Japanese isn't so good…"

"My family and Rei's family both know English" I smiled

"Okay~! … but what if Rei doesn't want to go?"

"She has to go" o.o

"How come?"

"Oh and Sashuna too! Every year the main Momori family gathers for the new years banquet; my family too"

"Really?"

"Yup! It's a tradition for our families"

"… Oh wow…"

There was a moment of awkward silence between us before I muttered

"So- so how do you like Christmas in America?"

"It's fun!"

"How was your Christmas last year back in Japan?" he started fiddling with the sapphire crystal dangling off the necklace I gave him this morning while he struggled for an answer.

"It was…"

**-Momiji-**

"It was… fun..."

**-Flashback- December 25, 2008-**

It was… fun…

That's what I said whenever anyone asked me about my Christmas that year. It should have been. I had the family I always craved when I was younger. My mama accepted me throughout time (mostly because the curse had already broken), and I finally had my little sister. I _should_ have been happy. I really should have been. But I wasn't. The one thing I solely desired for so long was forever out of my reach. I was at my papa's house. It was Christmas. I had my family. But no Izzy.

"nii-san?" Momo said

"Yes?" I answered softly

"Here!" she said holding out a small red box with a frilly yellow ribbon on top

"Merry Christmas!" I smiled at her

"Thank you Momo" I gave her, her present then, and out of the corner of my eye I saw papa give his to mama. She opened it to reveal a golden locket. It was simple, but elegant. It looked identical to the one I gave to Izzy only a few days after I met her.

A wave of pain, the edges of the hole in my heart burning in an inferno, i left the house without a single word. I did that a few times before so my parents had stopped asking. I pulled my coat tighter around me, and braced myself against the cold. I felt empty. So completely _empty. _The love of my life was dead. The thing that bonded me unconditionally to my cousins was gone. Sure I had my 'family' but they barely even knew anything about me.

I walked in no clear direction, and when I look up i somehow ended up at the Momori estate.

**-Envylamperouge- i am SO sorry for not updating in forever. T^T i kept procrastination, and forgetting what i was going to type. And then there's YouTube... it's just so damn awesome ;A;**

**Please review~**

**Even if you hate it Q_Q~**

**Original post date: 1/29/2010**


	12. aishiteru, and shut the fuck up

**-Momiji-(continuing flashback from last chapter)  
**Nauto opened up the door on his way out  
"Momiji!" he said in surprise  
"it's freezing out there! Get inside! NOW!" he said pulling me inside.  
It wasn't that cold... but then again i always felt cold now a days.  
He sat me down in the kitchen and took my temperature, and made sure i hadn't gotten sick.  
"I'm fine Nauto" i said quietly.  
"Hnn... 'fine'... if you say so..." he still looking at me, with a worried look in his eyes. He cared for my mental health more than my physical state though.  
And chu-chi, he cared for her metal state as well.  
"Oh! Momiji! I didn't know you were here!" said chu-chi. She smiled warmly at me, and i smiled back at her  
"would you like some tea?" i looked over her face. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her hair was slightly messed up.  
"Yes, please" i mutter softly. I smiled up at her and she went to the kitchen. I felt bad. My curse had broken soon after i started the school year, but the Momori's still had their curse intact, and the charms started losing their power. Half the time they worked, and other times they didn't.  
"Momiji-niisan!" Koharu said running into me. I smiled again  
"merry Christmas!" he tripped on his feet and landed on his face. I picked him up off the floor and he grinned back at me

"Momiji-niisan! I have a surprise for you!" he said tugging my sleeve. I followed the six year old up to the attic, where the piano was. On the top of it there was a small box, with my name written on the tag. I opened it to reveal a charm bracelet,

There were three charms on it. The first one was a miniature violin, the second was a bunny, and the third was a locket that looked almost exactly like the one I had given to Izzy, but newer, like the one mama had gotten

I opened the locked slowly to see two miniature pictures. One of Momo and the other of me and Izzy.

"… Thank you Koharu…!" I said out of breath. In the tiny box there was a note. It said

_Momiji_

_Hi there :) _

_If you are reading this, then it means it's after your birthday… and I've lost this box. T^T if I had found it, this note wouldn't be in it :D … unless I forgot about it… _

_Well I wanted to give you something like this for your birthday… but I was missing the locket, and pictures… but I got them! :D it awesomeness! _

_Yay~!_

_Well I hope you like it!_

_If you ever find it Q_Q_

_Keep smiling Miji-kun! If not I will smack you with a pillow! Don't think I won't do it!_

_Even if I die I will come back from the dead, and smack you with the pillow!_

_~love, Izzy_

**-End flashback-**

"Momiji!" I flinched, and noticed that it had gotten dark out already

"Thank god you're alive!" Elli said jokingly

"Err… sorry… I guess I just spaced out there" I said smiling, and taking her hand in mine

"Yup. For like twenty minutes" she said giggling. Her fingers were cold

"Do you want to go back home?" I asked her. She smiled brightly and I felt butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

"Sure!"

I like Elli. A lot. I already know this… but I still feel _wrong _to love her… _ I still love Izzy _

I sigh on the way to the car

"You tired?" she asked me, tilting her head to the side a bit. I smiled. Did she know how cute she looked when she did that? O.o … okay… did I actually just think that?

"No, not really, just thinking…"

"About what?"

"You" her face turned bright red

"w- What?"

I laughed at her expression. Her eyes were wide and her face was cherry red

"I was thinking about the type of person you are"

"… Oh… is that bad?" she asked, her brow furrowing

"No, it's a very good thing" I said draping my arm over her shoulder.

"o- Oh…." She stammered. Elli is a very kind person. She's smart too. And funny. She smiles all the time, and whenever I'm near her, the coldness seems to go away.

She makes me smile, and it brightens my day when I hear her laugh for no reason. She doesn't mind when I go all quiet or when I space out randomly.

She understands that it's hard to lose someone close to you.

She holds me when I'm upset, and knows what I want to hear at those times.

When I think back to it… I can't really see life without her anymore…

My eyes widen at the new realization…

"We're home!" Elli says in a sing-song voice. I follow her up the stair to the doorway and as soon as we enter Haru and Lulou stick out their hands to stop us and yell

"Freeze!" Elli and I look at them curiously. Then Lelouch points to the top of the doorway where some kind of plant is hanging off of it. Elli gasped and turned bright red

**-Elli-**

Mistletoe?

"Lelouch!"

"No, no, no! You can't come inside until you kiss~!"

"_**WHAT?"**_ Momiji and I said in unison.

"You heard the guy" Haru said with a smile tugging at his mouth.

My face turned a bright red

"Err… Elli… if you don't want to, we don't have to…" Momiji said quietly

"It's not that I don't want to! It's just that this is-!"

"So you admit you want to~" Lelouch said smugly

I swear I thought my face couldn't get any redder

"Hey Elli?" I turned to face Momiji, and was surprised when I felt something brush by my lips

If I thought my face was red _before_, it had no color compared to what it was _now _

Lelouch and Haru started laughing, as I froze up

"Yes!" Lelouch said punching the air

"Plan: get them to kiss is a go! High-five Haru!" he said holding his hand up high to Haru to slap.

**-Momiji-**

Did I actually just do that….?

I look over to Elli, to see her face was completely red.

"Elli…?"

"Can I go inside now…?" she said quietly

Did I screw up…? Damn it… I knew I shouldn't have done that! … But I did… and it felt… nice…!

My face felt warm, and I felt butterflies in my stomach. This feeling was so familiar… but I don't remember from where… I walked Elli to her room, somewhere on the other side of her enormous maze like house.

"Elli…?" her face is still a bright red

"Hnn?" she says while looking at the floor

"About the kiss…" her face resumes its previous shade of bright red

"I'm sorry" I said not able to find any better words. She gasped

"No!" surprised I turned to face her.

"It's not that it was bad or anything! I just! … I was shocked….!"

"Is it that bad?" I asked poking her arm

"… not… _technically_…"

"So it's a good thing?" I said a _bit_ too happy

"umm"

"Do you like me?" I asked out f nowhere. She turned red again, and started playing with her fingers

"Well… I umm" I placed my hand on her cheek and brought her face close to mine, and encircled her waist with my other arm

"You can tell me. I won't mind the answer" she looked wide eyed at me, her face turned a shade of red that I had never seen before.

Time seemed to stand still as I awaited her response. Her lips were barely half an inch away from mine as she responded

"Momiji… _Ich liebe dich_" that's when I closed the gap between us and pressed my lips against hers. Her lips were soft and warm against my own, and tasted faintly of chocolate. The kiss sent shivers along my spine, and the butterflies in my stomach were flapping their wings at full speed.

She wrapped her arms around my chest and I held her close against me. My head was spinning and my knees felt weak, and I felt so _alive._

For the first time in over a year and half the coldness was completely gone.

When we broke apart, she smiled at me warmly, and with a slight laugh I said

"_That_ should have been our first kiss" she giggled and buried her face in my chest.

"Get a room you two!" Lelouch said in an uber girly voice, while pushing me and Elli into her room.

"Oh my god" Elli said covering her face with her hands. I laughed and said

"Elli you get embarrassed by the weirdest things"

"Shut up~!" she said hitting my back with an overstuffed pillow

"Fine, but really, you do" she smiled sheepishly and giggles again

"… Momiji… I love you… but what do you think of … me…?" she said quietly.

What I think of her? That I can't see myself without her in the future. That I would do anything to see her smile, that she means so much to me? I settled for

"Aishiteru" and I watched her eyebrows furrow

"What does that mean?" she asked. I sat down next to her on her bed, and wrapped my arms around her waist again. I whispered in her ear

"It means 'I love you'" and I pressed another kiss to her cheek. She giggled, and turned to face me, as I rested my head on her shoulder.

"Momiji? Does this mean that we're going out now?" I smiled

"Do you want us to go out?" she smiled and nodded.

We enjoyed a while of peace and quiet before Haru came in and said if we'd seen Rei

"She's still not home?" Elli asked worriedly

"No" Haru said in monotone

"But on another point, when did you two become an item?" he said smiling

"About fifteen minutes after 'plan: get them to kiss' succeeded" I said grinning. He smiled back at me  
**-Haru-**

Momiji has been my best friend for the longest time. I've always hated seeing him upset in anyway, so after Izzy died, and he became a total mess, I was always trying to cheer him up. Then one day about a year ago, he started smiling again. It never touched his eyes, but it was something at least. He stopped locking himself up in his room so often, and started going out of the house.

Since we met Elli, his smiled are getting warmer. His laughs are real, and right now at this very moment I can hardly see any of the coldness in him. And for that I am truly thankful to Elli for being in our life.

"Alright then…" I said to them smiling

"… but would you mind explaining why you're both _alone_, in Elli's room, with the door _closed_?" I asked like a parent would. Momiji and Elli both turned a bright shade of red

"It's not what it looks like!" they said in unison. I laughed.

"_Right_~!"

"Haru!" Elli said in a whiney voice

"So you guys really don't know where Rei is?" I asked tilting my head to the side

"No, we haven't seen her since the morning" Momiji replied

"Hmm…"

Elli's phone started ringing

"Hello?"

There was mumbling on the other side and Elli's facial expression changed from worried to amazed, then to confused

"Alright then. I'll see you in the morning"

"Who was it?" Momiji asked

"Rei. She said that at her work there was a big situation, and since she works so far away she's spending the night with one of her co-workers"

"What was the problem about?" I asked

"She didn't say"

**(An: speaking or Rei's work…)**

**-Lacey- (continuing off from the last sentence from previous chapter)**

I haven't been here five minutes and one of the princesses already hates me ;A; that doesn't feel fair…

She continued crying for a while later, when I felt something just _snap. _

"Will you _**shut **__**UP?**_" I yelled. No one said a sound and they all stared at me

"You're princess emiko Momori, the empress's first daughter. How the **hell** am I supposed to compare to that? She's know you for a year and a half, she hasn't even known me for _half an hour_!" princess emiko stared at me

"Listen, if you don't like me, I'll leave. Simple as that. I've never had a mother so I don't know what I'll be missing out on, so I'll be okay. There's no need to go all hysterical on me, you psycho!" everything went silent for a moment, and then emiko started talking.

"You… you would give up your mother… just like that….?"

"Yes. Like I said, I've never had a mother, so I don't know what I'll be missing out on for the rest of eternity. Hell I don't even know what she's _like_! So far in the past twenty minutes I've seen that she's an over concerned doting crazy flyleaf obsessed person."

"I'm not _that _obsessed" the empress said quietly.

"So… you would give her up… to have me happy…?" the princess asked again

"I am NOT repeating myself again god damn it!"

"But… you would?" -_-

"Yes. I would" I said finally. I walked up to her

"So I could leave now, and have you happy again, or I could stay here and have you all bitchy. Which do you _think_ I would want?" her large red eyes watered again. She let out a loud wail and started crying again

Damn it!

I turned away to ask for a way out of there, when an arm pulled me toward the crying girl. The empress was holding us both. She smiled and muttered something I couldn't hear before she said to emiko

"Emiko. Lacey is my daughter. Whether you like it or not. She won't ever replace you"

"No duh! Because you're emiko, and I'm lacey. Two completely different people with two completely different personalities. The only thing we really have in common is the same mom"

**-Emiko-**

"So listen emiko, she's going to be staying with us whether you like it or not, and I know how you feel, but lacey's right. You're two completely different people, and neither of you can ever replace the other" mama said quietly looking at me. I notice the red nail marks on her shoulders, and arms and I start feeling bad again. I hug my doll closer to me and then I look over to the other girl. She has her arms crossed and she's looking at me. She has the same look on her face as mama does. I look at my doll. I remember that it had taken mama forever to get it done, and after the project for her class was done she said she didn't want to throw it away because _"it took too damn long to make! I spent forever on this thing! My fingers still hurt from all the times I accidentally pricked them with the needle! I'm not throwing it away! … can you take care of it Emiko?"_

I looked at it now and then to mama. _My _mama. I didn't want to share her, and I could NEVER imagine giving her up! And here's this girl who's willing to give up mama to make me happy. No one's ever done such a nice thing for me…

"okay…" I mutter quietly while rubbing my eye.

"you're not going to bitch and whine about me 'stealing' your mama?" she said with heavy air quotes.

"… yes" I said after a long while. But I'm still jealous….

**Okay… it sucked… I just KNOW it did. **

**But anyway~ this chapter goes out to Mammothbay! Because you totally made my day on Saturday when I saw your message :D thank you~**

**Please review Q_Q**

**Even if you hate it~**

**Original finish date: 2/13/10**


	13. Back To Japan

**-Elli-December 30 2009-**

Holy crap I'm nervous. Momiji, Haru, Rei, Lelouch, and I are on the plane ride to Japan, and I just started hyperventilating. I think. I'm not exactly sure what hyperventilating is actually…

Well either way…

I'm afraid of heights. I have no idea why, since I can't remember much from before two years ago.

My Japanese is horrible. Over the past half year I've been teaching Haru English and he's teaching me Japanese… but my Japanese is still _**really**_ crappy…

Will Momiji introduce me as his girlfriend to his family? Will he even introduce me at all? What if he's ashamed of me?

I started hyperventilating again.

"Elli, what's the matter?" Momiji asked taking my hand in his.

"Nothing!" I said a bit too quickly. He raised an eyebrow and smiled. Damn him and his Adonis-like good looks TwT … not that **I'm **complaining…

"Are you sure?" he asked

"I… I guess I'm just nervous…"

"Why would you be nervous?" he said tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear. He smiled warmly at me and I felt my face get warm.

"Elli?"

"… I … um… I guess that I'm nervous about meeting you family…" he laughed and draped an arm over my shoulder. I automatically leaned into his chest.

"Don't worry Elli, I'm sure that they'll like you" how is it that he always knew what I was thinking?

I looked back to the seats behind us where Rei was playing on her Nintendo DSi with Lelouch, and Haru had fallen asleep

"And then there's how well I can talk…" I muttered silently

"Elli" Momiji said softly.

"What did I just say?" he continued

"… Don't worry…?" I said/asked. he laughed and kissed my forehead. I don't think I'll ever be completely used to the feeling that came after every time he did that. My stomach always felt like it was doing flip-flops, while managing to contain a million butterflies always fluttering around. A blush crept onto my cheeks and, I smiled.

'Don't worry' I kept repeating to myself. 'Don't worry'

I tried to get my mind off of the subject by remembering Rei's expression when she saw that Momiji and I had gotten together

**-Flash back- December 26-**

Momiji and I were on the couch watching some random cartoon. Momiji's head was on my shoulder and his arms were wrapped around my waist. The door slid open to reveal a very sleepy looking Rei, but all the exhaustion in her face went to shock when she saw Momiji and I together

"Damn it all! They did plan: make them kiss without me! Those bastards!" she then proceeded to go off to find Lelouch and Haru and smack them both with her giant Pikachu doll.

"So Rei was in on it too?" Momiji asked. We laughed.

She chased Lelouch around the house for about an hour before he finally tripped in the living room, and Rei trapped him in a headlock.

"You damn bastard! I told you not to start without me!"

"It wouldn't have worked!"

"Why not?"

"Because you came home late damn it!" he said breaking free of her grasp and crawling towards Momiji and me

"Haru and I had an excuse with the mistletoe on Christmas, and you didn't come back until about an hour ago!"

"Shut up!" she said pulling him back towards the kitchen, but right when she passed by me

"And WHY didn't you tell me this yesterday over the phone?"

…

"… Um…. You seemed busy over the phone, so I didn't want to bother you…?"

She glared at me and Momiji.

** -end flashback-**

"Elli~"

"Nnnn?"

"Elli?" a familiar voice called

"He he! Cookies!" damn my morning stupidity T^T

"Elli? Are you awake?"

"No, Mr. Fluffums" I heard a warm sounding laugh

"Elli, it's time to get off the plane~"

"Airplane….?" I felt someone pull the seat belt off of me and then pick me up from my seat. I opened my eyes a bit to see Momiji leading me out of the shuttle. I apparently fell asleep on the plane ride here.

The snow felt cold against my skin. Stupid snow woke me up!

**-An hour later-**

"Oh. My. God." I said looking at the enormous estate

"Welcome to the Sohma estate!" Momiji said draping an arm over my shoulder.

"You live here?"

"In one of the houses, I do" he said smiling.

"And Haru has his own somewhere here too"

"Oh wow!"

"Speaking of which, Momiji, shouldn't you go show off your girlfriend?" Haru said. I noticed Momiji started blushing, and I laughed

"You look so cute when you blush Miji-kun!" I said, and then I kissed his now red cheek.

"Err… um… let's go see Shigure!" he said stammering.

"Momiji…? Are you okay…?"

"Fine! Oh look its Shigure!" he said dragging me over to a tall raven haired man, dressed in a kimono.

With my horrible Japanese, I barely understood that he was introducing me to this man, and saying that I … I'm not sure what else he said after that TwT

In almost perfect English the man known as Shigure said

"So you're the girl Haru's told me about!" Haru?

The older man laughed and trapped me in a hug, in which I couldn't breathe. What was it with people and hugs these days? … Not that **I'm **complaining… a lot….

"Okay, Shigure that's enough!" Momiji said with… what is this? Jealousy? Oh wow… I never knew Momiji was capable of that…

He pulled me away from his cousin, and dragged me away while half yelling to Shigure, something in Japanese. He pulled me almost instinctively to a large house where a man in a lab coat was walking on the porch

"Hatori~~~!" Momiji yelled waving his arms all over the place. The tall man turned to face him, and smiled.

Momiji practically dragged me to the house, and then he started talking rapidly in Japanese.

"Momiji, I thought you said that Elli-san couldn't speak Japanese to save her life" he said in English.

I could feel all the blood rush to my face, as I covered my face out of embarrassment.

Momiji said something in Japanese and Sohma-san laughed a bit

"I'm sorry Elli-san, I was just playing around with Momiji" he said ruffling the blonde's hair.

**-Momiji-**

I dragged Elli half way across the estate until I finally came up to Hatori's house. I called his name and he turned to face me, with a small smile on his face.

"Hatori, Hatori, I'm so happy to see you! How have you been? Where's Mayu? Oh, oh, oh! Here's Elli!" I said quickly in Japanese.

"Momiji, I thought you said that Elli-san couldn't speak Japanese to save her life" Hatori said in English. My face turned bright red

"Hatori! That was months ago! Shut up~!" Hatori laughed a bit, and the said

"I'm sorry Elli-san, I was just playing around with Momiji" while ruffling my hair.

"I'm sorry Elli" I said sheepishly in English while turning to face her. Her face was a bright red color.

"I'm so sorry Elli!" I said hastily in German.

"It's okay!" she said quickly, with a big grin pasted onto her face.

"It was… very… nice to meet… you Hatori-san!" she said in broken Japanese to Hatori.

Ever since the curse had broken Hatori had started seeing Mayu-sensei. I often went over to their house, when I didn't want to be all alone at my house

"_**Momiji NII-SAN~!**_" A familiar voice yelled over to me from very far away. Momo came running to me and nearly tackled me to the ground while trying to hug me

"Momo-Chan!" she smiled brightly at me, and when I smiled back her grin (if it was even possible) got even bigger. I started laughing and she giggled

"Momo-Chan!" Mama's voice called out

"You shouldn't tackle Momiji-san like that… you might have hurt him" my mama said… she wasn't used to me being her son yet. Keyword: YET.

"Hi, mama" I said nervously

"Hello, Momiji-kun"

"nii-san! das ist die große elli Sie aufhören zu sprechen pflegte?" she said energetically

I laughed and Elli said

"You don't stop talking about me…?" with a puzzled look on her face

I started laughing a bit nervously and in Japanese I said to Momo quietly

"She didn't have to know **that**!" Momo laughed and then. I stood up holding her like a princess. She giggled flailing her legs around and then I turned to face Elli, positive my cheeks were still a bright red

"You now she's right about that" I said in Japanese while laughing. She smiled, though she didn't know what I had just said… or at least I **hope **she didn't know…

"Momiji nii-san will you be spending new years with the main family again?" Momo asked me while holding onto my neck.

"Yes, Momo, but I'll be with you and our parents again!"

"Miji…" Elli said quietly

"What is it, Elli?" I asked her in English. As if to answer my question her stomach rumbled loudly. I couldn't refrain myself from laughing at that, while Elli started to turn red. I put Momo down and I offered to take Elli to eat

**-Hatori-**

He smiled… and it reached his eyes…

I haven't seen one of his **real** smiles in almost two years…

Has this one girl really been enough to change him so much in just six months…?

Then again Izzy did the same thing when she was around…

He laughed whole-heartedly, and then ran off with Elli to who-knows-where

"She really is something isn't she…?" Momiji's mother said quietly.

"Yes… she is" by the look in her eyes whenever she looked at Momiji, I could see that she really cared for him.

"Was that Momiji?" Mayu asked coming out of the house. I nodded

"and _why_ didn't you tell me?" she said playfully, I smiled then out of nowhere Shigure popped up and nearly yelled in my ear

"Tori-san~!" I think I twitched…

"Have you seen Momiji yet~?" I smiled and nodded

"I haven't seen him like that in what seems like **ages**" he continued seriously

"I know"

**-Chu-chi-**

Today Momiji is coming back to Japan…

"chu-chi-san..?" Sashuna asked timidly. She had gotten back about four days ago.

"is… is Serena-sama going to be at the banquet this year?"

"No" I said smiling

"She said she wanted to be alone this year. Isn't **that** a miracle?" I said laughing a bit at the end. Sashuna laughed a bit too, and looked at the floor

"Then… is it alright… if I invite someone to the feast?"

"Sure, who?"

"… … … um… I was thinking… maybe…Rei…?"

"Huh?"

**-envylamperouge: O.o was it weird?**

**I think it was :)**

**LoL, but I ALWAYS think my chapters are weird. Doesn't mean I'll stop writing them! xD**

**And thank you still to my two reviewers Mammothbay and Randomanime456 :D you both make me smile :D **

**Please review~**

**Q_Q even if you hate it~**

**Original finish date: 2/24/2010**


	14. new years preparations kind of

**-Chu-chi-December 30, 2009-**

"huh?"

"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have asked!" Sashuna said bowing

"… it's … okay… if you bring her… I guess… but I doubt she would ever like to come…"

"well…~" she started but then Koharu ran into the room yelling

"ane-san!" and latching onto by waist from behind. With one hand stuck up near my face he showed me a big ball of what appeared to be slime. Eww.

"look what I got!" he sneezed then and it went into my hair… why do bad things happen to **me**?

**-Elli-**

After getting something to eat with Momiji, I thought to myself since the first time I woke up in the airplane

"where the hell are Rei, Lulou, and Haru?" Momiji looked at me puzzled

"they left at the airport, don't you remember?" … no…. but **you** don't have to know that…

"um…."

"Rei, and Lulou when to Rei's apartment, so that Lelouch knows where he's going to be staying, and Haru went to see some of our cousins" o.o

"I never noticed D8" Momiji started laughing and I felt my face turn red. AGAIN.

"well, I guess I can't blame you. You were asleep practically from the moment we boarded the plane" O_O I was?

"and you fell asleep in the car too"

O_O I did?

"and you called me Mr. Fluffums" he said laughing

O_O holy crap he wasn't supposed to know about that!

I laughed nervously, and he took my hand in his reassuring me that everything was fine, and there was nothing to worry about.

Then his phone started ringing the song 'don't say meltdown :)' (look it up on YouTube! It rocks! It should be the first one of the results :]) he smiled nervously and then excused himself to take the call outside the restaurant

**-Momiji-**

When I was outside, the first thing the person on the other line said was:

"Momiji nii-san! –hehehe- chi-chi nee-san turned into a boy!" Koharu then started to full out laugh, and then I heard the phone drop to the ground.

Wait…

"chu-chi turned into a boy?" I asked quietly. There were more noises on the other line and then Makenna said

"Momiji, you might want to get over here, chu-chi's throwing some sort of weird tantrum" there was a crashing sound on the other side of the line and then she added "_**NOW**_" and then the line got cut.

I walked back inside to Elli and asked her

"ne, Elli, do you want to go see a Mad House?"

"a Mad House?" she asked wearily, but none-the-less she agreed to go with me.

**-after drive to the Momori house- (AN: did I ever mention Momiji can drive?)**

"well here we are, the Momori Mad House"

"Momori Mad House?" I smiled and lead her inside, where Sashuna was tossing around Sawa-san like he was a rag doll, chu-chi could be heard crying from upstairs, Koharu, lily and Tara were running around the house throwing some sort of slimy substance all around the house, and Makenna was out cold on the floor

"yup, it's a Mad House" I muttered with a small laugh.

"Momiji nii-san! The twins and Koharu yelled when they saw me, and then they proceeded to tackle me to the ground. Thank god their charms worked this time.

"you're back!" they yelled

"and you're on crack" Sakura said to the three kids while coming in through the door

"Momiji, nice to see you again" she looked across the living room and yelled to Sashuna

"Sashuna! Put Sawa down!" he was flung all the way across the living room (literally)

Then chu-chi popped up next to me saying

"welcome back Momiji!"

… or at least I **thought** it was chu-chi…

"what in the hell happened to your hair?" it was short, cut to the nape of her neck (like Kyo!)

"it wasn't my fault!"

"right~ I bet it was Koharu" I said standing up, with a slight chuckle

"it was! He threw this strange goop onto my hair! And then it went down my shirt!"

"are you serious?" I said laughing and clinging to Elli, to keep from falling again

"oh! and this Elli!" I said pulling her in front of me. The girls were all over her in a matter of a few mille-seconds… even Makenna who was passed out just a second ago… O.o I will never understand the female mind… it's just freaky… it just IS…

I slowly made my way over to Nauto

"so" he said

"girls are freaky" I interrupted

"you completely read my mind" he said laughing, I laughed along with him, and while the girls were chatting about… I'm not exactly sure what… something about… something… I don't talk girl! … at least not **anymore**… maybe… … … … … shut up

When I looked over to chu-chi I began to wonder… how would have Izzy have looked if she was still alive…?

**(speaking of which… I haven't done her point of view since chapter 11! Aww poor Izzy… I hope she doesn't try to kill me this time…)**

**-Izzy-**

… emiko and lacey are best friends now… its kind of creepy… only five days ago emiko was trying to kill lacey… and now they're skipping down the hall like lifelong best friends…

I think they're bipolar…. I hear its genetic so they might have gotten it from me :D

In my room I try to concentrate on doing my calculus homework, but I keep peering over my shoulder to see Kirimi.

Once every month the giant deformed creature comes to stare at me. Well I think it stares… the second it gets here it looks over me at all angles then quietly sits in the corner of the room I'm in for about an hour or so. It's never bothered me… but…

"Kirimi?" I asked quietly turning around to face him… well I think it's a him… his metallic screech answers me inside my head **'yes?'** I can feel my eyebrows furrow when I ask

"why do you watch me like that?" I wait a moment for him to reply but he doesn't answer. After a long quiet pause I stand up and walk towards him. Cautiously while trying to ignore the stench he emits I look him in the eye and ask him

"what are you?"

** -Kirimi-**

"what are you?" I feel like laughing but I keep silent. After a moment my master asks me another question

"are there more of you?" you already know… there's me… and then there's Rei's… and Kyo's… and Nauto's… and… then there's Momiji's…

I am Izzy's spirit reflection… I reflect her very soul, every impurity, malice, and harmful thought shapes my mind and body…

"why is your name Kirimi?" I actually do let out a short chuckle, but it comes out sounding horrible.

'Kirimi is the name you gave me in this form, master' I want to tell her. The first time I entered the mortal world was when she tried to run away back when she was five. She got lost in the forest and I condensed my size to the size of an average bunny. And I looked like one too at the time! I led her back to her house where her 'mother' was passed out and sprawled over the couch, while her sister was huddled in the corner and her father had been knocked out cold.

"_thank you Mr…" _she started, but I had no name at the time, and I think I would have scared you if I talked…

"_Kirimi!"_ you said in a moment of 'brilliance'

"_that's gonna be your name ok?"_ I said nothing, and then I left. I kept the name though… I thought that if I saw you again you might have remembered me because of it… but you didn't… I don't blame you… it was 11 years in between the first time I saw you and the time after that…

I sigh, and with my giants hideous paw I pat her head. I turn around to face the side of her room that was made completely made out of a mirror. I phase through it and end up in the mirror world…

**-Izzy-**

How the hell does he do that? He just suddenly phases through the mirror after patting my head! I wanna learn how to phase through a mirror!

I turn around silently to check my phone… stupid touch screen phone….

_**13 new messages**_

O_O

I read through each of the messages my friend, Euphemia**(yoo-fee-mee-ah Atsuko, yoo-fee-mee-ah! Not something weird D:)**, had sent me. All of them basically had the same theme: 'Izzy! Get the hell over to the music room! NOW! I'll give you candy~~~ :3'

I sigh and get dressed in the school uniform, and stalked off to my musical theater class. I had dropped choir almost exactly the day after I started the class… and I was right to do so :D

One of my other friends stayed in that class until the end of the first semester and she said that the stupid songs she was forced to sing made her brain explode.

Just when I was about to open the door my teacher ran out, tripping on her floor length pleated dress and her large round glassed skidded onto the ground

"Miss Amane!" I exclaimed at I dropped to my knees to help her off the ground

"oh Izzy! I'm so glad you're here!" she said exaggeratedly, quickly changing the subject from her fall to something else

"the class has gotten into a huge argument about what we are going to be doing for the cultural festival!"

o.o

"that's what the bid deal was for?"

"_**yes!**_"

"Izzy!" Euphy (Euphemia) yelled skidding out of the room

"tell Joshy that we should do the beauty and the beast musical!" then 'Joshy' (Joshua) ran out of the room and exclaimed

"hell no! that play's for wusses! We should do pirates of the Caribbean!" every year for the cultural festival the choir, drama, and musical theater club have their own competition, and whoever does the greatest performance, gets the most funding for the school. i sighed

"what does Scilla say?" Scilla was a close friend, and a noble, that just so happened to be attending school with me. She fought in the black rebellion, if I recall correctly…

"did someone call me?" she said peering her head out of the door way, her long, thick, light brown ponytails swinging almost near the floor

"yes, I'm wondering what you think we should do for the festival?"

"PIRATES!" if anyone new Scilla at all, they would know that she loved Johnny Depp more than her life, but that's not the way she lost her life though…

"yeah!" josh yelled.

"so which one will it be?" they all asked me at the same time…

"BARNEY!" I yelled before running down the hall

**Totally random sentence at the end… xD **

**Well… review! Or I'll kill Izzy! I swear I'll do it!**

**Izzy: … I'm already dead you moron**

**Envy: -runs away-**

**Izzy: my god she's a weirdo… :D I finally get to say something outside of the story! FREEDOM! **

**Now… what to say… I'm going to go kill envy for making me short! :D ja'ne~!**

**-far far FAR away-**

**Envy: please review~ or I'll die~**

**Izzy: not before I get to you –evil grin-**

**Envy: -faints-**

**Izzy: … review or I'll kill envy lamperdouche- lamper…. Ouch? Ooze? whatever her last name is!**

**Envy: OH OH OH! And I totally forgot about this, but on May 17 –Forbidden Fruit- celebrated it's one year birthday :D I'm so proud! This is the longest story I've ever worked on, and I love it!**

**Original finish date: 3/25/10 (notice how close to today's date this is D:)**


	15. new years part 1

**-Elli-December 31-**

Today certainly was… eventful :D

"so how are you enjoying Japan so far?" Momiji asked me, when we got back to his house

"it's weird" an upset look flashes across his face before I said "and that's exactly why I love it" I giggled and he smiled brightly at me

"so, Elli, I have another question for you" he said looking me in the eyes, with his looking slightly nervous

"how do you like being with me?" I smiled and answered him without a second thought

"it's one of the best things that's ever happened to me" the nervous look in his eyes disappeared, and he kisses my forehead.

"that's great"

"it's more than that" I said wrapping my arms around his torso, and standing on tippy-toes. He leaned down to meet me half-way in a sweet warm kiss.

"it's absolutely wonderful" I finished.

The sound of someone clearing their throat was enough to scare the crap out of me and cause me to cling to Momiji. Momiji laughed nervously and then awkwardly said to the other person while he tightened his hold on me

"err….. hi papa" oh god…. I'm so embarrassed I swear I could die right now

**(an: speaking of being dead~)**

**-Izzy-**

After Euphy chased me through the entire school, and pinned me to the ground, she said –cough chough YELLED-

"choose or I'll kill your precious Pichu!" was what she used to persuade me to choose.

"umm… will you give me back Pichu and get off me if I choose beauty and the beast?" she nodded and I sighed.

"fine. Beauty and the beast" all the ones that wanted pirates of the Caribbean groaned and I exclaimed

"how the hell would we fit music into a movie like that?" a few people grumbled, and others agreed, and in the end the votes ended up like this

Beauty and the beast: 20

Pirates of the Caribbean: 9

Barney: 1

… the guy who chose barney is a real odd ball.

Josh would be the beast, Euphy would be Babette (the feather duster, I'm not sure of her name) Scilla would be Mrs. Pots a guy I hate would be Gaston, and I unfortunately have to be Belle. T^T I hate my teacher for forcing me to be the lead _**every time**_! Why me? I can't dance or sing very well and I'm a horrible actress!

I sighed and looked at my phone. December 31… oh how time flies…. I'm getting old T-T

**-Makenna-**__

After Momiji brought his new girlfriend over, chu-chi, the twins and Sashuna swarmed over her. Momiji had become almost like a brother to all of us, so we all had to make sure this new girl was acceptable, if not then~ _something_ would have to be done~

After they left chu-chi said

"that girl seems so familiar". It was already 5:30 so we had to start getting into our kimonos for the new years festival. Since Izzy had passed away and the Sohma curse had been lifted, we joined our celebrations together, so now Koharu, and the two zodiac animals of the year would be dancing together. This year its Koharu, Haru and Kisa.

But for now, while I'm changing into my kimono, I can't help but to think about chu-chi's comment a while ago…

Because it actually makes sense…. Elli… there's something about her… I can't quite put my finger on it… but she seems so familiar…

**-Momiji-**

Damn… he wasn't supposed to be here until later…

I tightened my grip on Elli and asked

"what are you doing here so early papa?"

He looked at me, then at Elli, then back at me once more.

"err… well I heard you had come back to visit…" he said his eyes flickering to Elli

"and so I came to check up on you" I smiled a bit. He sounded so nervous and awkward being here, it was hard to suppress a laugh.

"I'm doing fine. Oh! And I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Elli" some of the skittishness in his eyes returned, but he smiled

"nice to meet you Elli-san" he said extending his hand to her, Elli letting one of her arms extend to shake his hand, while the other was still wrapped around me

"it's very… nice… to meet you… Sohma-san" slowly trying to say everything correctly.

My dad looked a bit puzzled, so I explained

"papa, Elli doesn't speak very much Japanese"

"oh… does she speak English?"

"and Spanish, and French, and German…~" I said smiling down at Elli's blushing face

"that's amazing…" my father murmured

"what's amazing?" Elli whispered to me, her brow wrinkling.

"that you speak so many languages" my papa, and I said at the same time. Her face turned a bright red as I chuckled.

"it's nothing to be embarrassed by Elli-san" my father said I English. She seemed to calm down after that… a bit…

"so Momiji how have you enjoyed your studies in America?" my dad asked me.

"I love it! everything's so different over there, and the people I've met are so interesting" I answered him, a wide grin on my face. He smiled back at me, and said that my being happy made him happy.

**-Momiji's dad-(let's call him Kiyoteru :])**

I haven't seen Momiji this happy in nearly two years…

This girl…

In just a few months…

She's managed to get the light back in his eyes, and getting him smile again.

I truly feel elated to see my son this happy again.

After everything that has happened to him… he deserves to be happy…

I just hope this girl doesn't leave like the other one…

"well I'll see you after new year's, son" and with that I left

**-Elli-**

_**Oh my god.**_ I feel so damn embarrassed. Mr. Sohma walked in on me and Momiji kissing, and then Momiji went on talking about my (horrible) language skills TT-TT

"what's wrong Elli?" Momiji asked me, while tilting my head up so that he could look at me better. Ow. My poor neck TT-TT damn his 5'10 stature T_T

"nothing" I mumbled burying my face in his chest. I could feel his chest moving as he breathed in and out rhythmically, and his heart beating slowly, as he started playing with my hair. The world always seemed to slow while I was in his arms for some reason.

"so~ do you want to take a nap before we go over to the new years party?"

…

New Years party…? What's tha- oh! _Oh! _**Oh…. **Crap! I had completely forgotten about that!

Total face palm moment.

"oh shit" I mutter under my breath. Momiji laughs and tucks my hair behind my ear

"did you forget about that already?"

"…. No~" I said trying to sound calm. Apparently that was an

_**EPIC FAILURE**_

Momiji looked at my eyes for a second then said, while poking my arm

"yes you did~"

How the hell does he do that?

"okay… but even if I didn't remember then I still have nothing to wear now do I?" I rhetorically asked my boyfriend.

He looked away from me and put his index finger on his chin, staring off into space, like he usually did when he was deep in thought; then his face lit up with a huge grin, like the child I knew he was inside

"I know! Let's go to Ritchan-san's house!"

Rit- what now?

"who?"

"my cousin Ritsu" Momiji answered already going to the door "he used to wear kimono all the time, and I bet he still probably has some stowed away in his closet or somewhere" but if Ritsu's a guy… will I be wearing a male kimono?

Momiji must have seen the look on my face because he said

"don't worry, all his kimono are female kimono" oh… ok… … but why did Ritsu wear female kimono if he's a man?

"and he used to be a cross dresser" o.o

"you know weird people" I muttered while putting on my shoes. The blonde in front of me just laughed and tugged me out the door, to go find his cousin rit- whatever he said.

**Okay… short chapter… don't hate me… **

**Cause the next chapter is going to be a lot shorter :P **

**And I almost kill Izzy 8D**

**Izzy: … what?**

**Review!**

**Original finish date: 4/17/10**


	16. new years part 2

**Beware! Short chapter! xD:**

**-Izzy-**

For weeks Sokiko has been planning New Year's party… and in all the fuss about the upcoming cultural festival, I had nearly forgotten about it.

So now~

I'm being stuffed into a dark red ball gown that itches like crazy by two maids DX

My hair is being pulled, and twisted, and I swear this maid is trying to rip out every strand of my hair for reasons I don't know, but it hurts like a beech.

My face is being harassed by makeup brushes and unknown crèmes, and powders, and the mascara tip nearly poked my eye out right now D:

"mommy are you done yet?" Lacey asked me for the fiftieth time that day.

"no, princess, but she's almost done" one of the maids answered for me seeing as my mouth was being painted at the moment. I peeked out of the corner of my eye to see her sitting at the edge of my bed, swinging her dangling legs off the side, and the light coming in from the window was making her strawberry blonde hair turn a reddish- pinkish color, and the light also made it look like she had a halo around her head. She was staring at me, with a curious look, and her eyes wandered everywhere around my room, trying to guess what kind of person I might be. In the past week she had been here, we had grown to love each other very much. She was my pride and joy, and even though emiko still was jealous (though she would never admit it) she never said a single word against our spending time together, because that's exactly what she did when I first came to this world.

Lacey's eyes scanned over the rich silk material of the dress I was wearing, the intricate crown that was placed on my head, intertwined with my hair to make it look as if it actually belonged there, and the makeup I was wearing that made my green eyes stand out, more than any other feature I had… maybe besides my red hair…

"are you done _now_ mommy?" Lacey said grinning, and trying to conceal a giggle. It took me a second to realize that the maids were done and had all scurried off in a group and that I had been staring at Lacey for a while now.

"oh.. err… yeah!" if possible her grin got even wider than before.

"well, let's go play then!"

I stood up from the tall chair I was sitting on, and everything looked blurry, and my head felt light, usually that would happen when I tried to stand up too fast, so I ignored it and stood still for a second to let it pass.

But…

Even after a minute or two…

The room still wouldn't stop spinning, my eyes were unfocused now, and my stomach began to knot.

It suddenly felt extremely hard to breathe… my lungs were on fire… my heart felt like it was being squeezed… cold wrapped itself around me, sending violent shivers racking throughout my entire body…

Cold… everything felt so cold… violent shivers were making all my muscles ache and I couldn't feel my fingertips or toes anymore…

There was a high pitched ringing in my ears that drilled into my brain and made the sides of my head pounce in agony. There was a thick liquid in my mouth that tasted awful, and had a horrible bitter, metallic edge to it.

"mo_mmy_?" Lacey called out… everything sounded like it was underwater and all slushy… the ringing still hadn't stopped, and now everything felt heavy.

"_mommy?_" the horrible metallic liquid was seeping out of one of the corners of my mouth, and dribbling onto my chin, the sharp metallic scent burning my nose…

Blood… I'm bleeding…

I fell onto my knees, my legs no longer able to support me, and then Lacey grabbed onto me

"_mommy!_" everything was blurry… and fading…

"g- go c-c-call-l s-so-k-ki-k-ko" I managed to mumble through the blood coming from my mouth and the shivers that shook my body violently. Goose bumps covered every inch of my skin, and… Lacey… I couldn't see her anymore… I couldn't see _anything_ anymore… couldn't hear, or see… I couldn't _feel_ anything either…

**-Kirimi-**

I was in my human form in the world of mirrors, my partner Akiko next to me on the beach.

"Richard?" she calls my name out, but I don't pay attention to her. I pay more attention to the fact that I have goose bumps all over my body, and that the raven hair on the back of my neck is standing on end…

There's something wrong with my master…

There's something wrong with Izzy…

**Cliffhanger!**

**Told you it was gonna be short.**

**Don't hate me Q_Q**

**Review~! Or Izzy dies!**

**Izzy: we've been through this en-**_**vie!**_

**Envy: -cowers in fear- yes, my master!**

**Izzy will not die Q_Q (cause she's already dead)**

**Izzy: SILENCE!**

**Envy: ok TwT**

**Izzy: review! :3 or else!**

**Original finish date: 4/17/10 (NOTICE THE DATE ON THIS ONE!)**


	17. new years count down and lulu's an idiot

**-no point of view-**

**-~*I am a dividing line*~-~*fear me*~-**

**-11:45 p.m.-**

At the Sohma main house the party was in full swing.

Momiji had somehow convinced into letting Ritsu let Elli borrow one of his beloved kimonos, which was a soft yellow, with golden flowers that seemed to be growing from the ends of the sleeves and the front of the kimono. The sleeves were extremely long, and Elli was afraid she was going to ruin the beautiful kimono by the end of the night.

Momiji _also_ convinced Ritsu into helping Elli put on the kimono. But he was right outside the door so that could make sure his cousin didn't do anything to Elli that was inappropriate.

He had already changed into his own kimono that was a vibrant shade of yellow, accented by red and green at the ends of the sleeves and hem.

Kisa, Haru and Koharu were in the middle of an intricate dance, and Elli watched them move flawlessly in awe, mindlessly twiddling with her hair, which she curled for that day (with a staightener [it's possible] she vowed never to go near the hair curler since she burned her face back in June)

She whispered to Momiji, while never taking her eyes off the dancers,

"so the people in your family and Rei's family have been assigned zodiac animals?" the Sohma's and Momori's had decided that it was best to tell Lelouch and Elli that they were assigned those positions, rather than they actually transformed into them (but for the Sohma's not anymore)

"Yup" Momiji answered Elli looking down at her petite figure (she's 5'4, and he's 6'1 so… yeah… she's short and he's tall…)

"… so which are you?" she asked after a while. Momiji thought whether to tell her… and

"The dragon" he said smiling brightly and proudly. Elli stared at him for a while then burst out laughing.

Momiji mock pouted and turned away from her

"What's so funny about that~!" after a moment Elli calmed down enough to tell him

"It's damn hard to believe you would be the _dragon_ of all the zodiac animals" he smiled down at her and asked her

"Ok, so what animal do you think I am?" she thought about it for a split second before answering

"The rabbit!" she said while giggling. Momiji smiled wistfully at her, and then nudged her side

"Are you some kind of physic or something?" he pressed his lips against her forehead, leaving her speechless, as he knew it would.

"Well… it suits you…" she said, her face turning a bright shade of red. He laughed at that 'oh, if only you knew' he thought to himself.

"so I see everyone here except the rooster, the horse, the Libra, the Sagittarius, or the Leo, do you know if they're going to be here?" Elli asked the half German boy.

Momiji stirred in his seat for a moment.

"The rooster, Kureno, lives far away now with his girlfriend and couldn't make it in time for the celebration. The horse, Rin, broke up with Haru before June, and things are still rough with them, the Libra, the head of the Momori house Serena, is sick and couldn't attend because of that, the Sagittarius, Yuno, is taking care of Serena" he stopped there, and looked back at the dance. Elli was stuck there thinking 'what about the Leo?' then she remembered that Momiji had told her that the Momori's all had a sibling, when she looked around everyone had someone who looked a bit like them… except chu-chi… with her vibrant red hair, and amazing green eyes, her sibling was bound to stick out like a sore thumb… and Elli remembered the picture of Momiji's dead girlfriend… vibrant red hair, and green eyes…

It all clicked into place for Elli, and she decided not to press the matter.

Just then the dance ended and everyone was talking wildly amongst themselves.

"Alright, settle down everybody" Akito said while pulling her husband, Shigure, to the floor, and away from flirting with Ayame

"It's time for the countdown~!" Shigure sang.

The Sohma's and Momori's turned to face the TV while a violent thunder storm was raging outside.

Almost all the nobles in the underworld turned to face the various screens in the ball room of the imperial castle

Izzy sat up in the pristine white bed inside the infirmary, to look at the TV on the far side of the wall

A man with raven hair and eyes like emeralds was holding one of her hands, while emiko held the other, and Lacey was sitting at the foot of the bed, swinging her legs over the side.

Everyone began to start counting down along with the clocks or TV's or radios, or whatever they were using

10 9 8

The raven haired man took his eyes off the screen to look at Izzy's pale clammy face, sweat matted hair, and drooping eyes.

7 6 5

Rei smacked Lulou for the fiftieth time since they arrived to the main house for flirting aimlessly with everyone and everything female within a 10 yard radius.

4 3

Momiji wrapped his arm around Elli's waist, a bright crimson blush creeping onto both of their faces.

2 1

In the Sohma house and the imperial castle cheers erupted and hugs were spread all around, couples turned to exchange their first kiss that year, which is exactly what Momiji did, afterwards leaving Elli burning a brilliant red, and flabbergasted, and both young adults blushing madly.

The raven haired man squeezed Izzy's hand, giving her a smile as Emiko and Lacey kissed the red-head's sunken cheeks.

In a raspy voice Izzy managed to say

"Thank you… _Kirimi_~" the raven haired man known as Richard, and also by 'Kirimi' smiled once again for his master.

In all the commotion of hugging Lelouch turned to hug chu-chi and, unfortunately, this was one of the times when the charms didn't work.

There was a puff of blue smoke and in its wake left a woman with long dark blue hair, and light blue skin standing in its place, or as Izzy always preferred to call her 'the blue lady'

The room went quiet

In the infirmary a shiver suddenly went up both Izzy and Richard's spines.

"Something's happened to the blue lady" Richard muttered with a slight laugh, while moving his gaze to Izzy's. He could read her thoughts clearly 'I hope she's okay'

"Don't worry, she will be, she's strong, master" he reassured her, while intertwining his fingers with hers. She smiled very faintly and then she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Everyone in the room sat in a deathly quiet.

"Ha! I knew I wasn't dreaming that Rei turned into a bird!" Lelouch yelled out. He then turned to face chu-chi, and said

"And _hello there, sexy~!_"

By god, Lelouch is a moron.

"ane-san…?" Koharu asked, trying to step forward to chu-chi who looked as if she had seen a ghost, and then he tripped on the ceremonial robes, landing onto Tohru, and then there was a loud _POP_ and in the little boy's place was a half goat, half whale, known to most as the Capricorn.

Tohru yelled, as she almost always did whenever she caused someone to transform.

The yelp scared brittle Ritsu and he knocked back into Makenna, who _finally_ transformed into her midway form.

She had a Spartan looking helmet, with the thing that looked like the end of the broom, the color of dark scarlet. A top made of bronze plates that exposed part of her midriff, and a matching skirt that went to mid thigh. Merging from the skirt came a long bronze plated scorpion's tail, with a sharp stinger at the end. She had knee length boots the color of gold rust, and a long rounded bronze shield with a gold scorpion on the front.

Her hair was curly and rustic bronze, and it _shined. _Her blood red eyes were open wide in surprise.

Makenna didn't yell. She _shrieked_. It was high pitched and irritating to hear.

"I have a _**tail**_! A fucking _**TAIL**_!" in all the commotion the twins fell backwards on top of Kyonkichi (Kyo) and they transformed.

By then Lelouch was really starting to get freaked out, and Elli just sat in shock. People were yelling, and trying to hide the people who transformed already, and Momiji glanced to Hatori and Akito, who looked nervous and mad at the same time. Then all of a sudden

"_**QUIET!**_" the door had been slammed open and in its wake was Serena, her eyes glaring at everyone in the room, and her jaw tense

"Akito! I want those two's memories erased right _now_!"

"No!" Momiji yelled out rising to his feet without knowing exactly what he was doing.

"Do not mess with issues that aren't your own, you stupid boy!" Serena yelled out at Momiji

"Don't yell at him!" Akito yelled, rising to her feet

"And who exactly are _you_ to be saying this to _me_? You aren't my _god _anymore!" Serena retorted.

"This is _my_ family's curse, _not yours_! So mind your own god damned business, you stupid wench!"

The slap given by Akito resounded harshly throughout the room.

And then the real violence started. Akito and Serena were at each other's throats like rabid animals.

Serena managed to throw Akito off of herself and then demanded

"And why the fuck is that _monster_ here?" as soon as she caught sight of Rei

"Leave her out of this!" Elli yelled at Serena

"She did nothing wrong!"

"_**Urasai**_! You're not even supposed to _be_ here!" Serena screeched "GET OUT!"

"_Make me_" Elli said, calmly standing her ground.

Serena smiled a wicked deceiving smile.

She raised a hand to hit Elli and Momiji stood in shock, nit able to move to stop Serena, but then Rei was in between Elli and Serena.

"Don't you _dare_ touch Elli, you stupid, loudmouthed-" Serena's eyes widened in disgust "self-centered, egotistical" her jaw tensed and her glare sharpened "narcissistic, bitchy _whore!_"

Serena threw a punch at Rei.

Several people in the room flinched waiting for the sound of the punch to land.

But there was a muted clap noise in place of it and a gasp.

When the people opened their eyes they didn't see Serena's fist in contact with Rei's face.

They saw Serena's eyes widened in shock, Rei's face calm as it possibly could be, and Serena's throat in Rei's grasp.

Making it look like it was the easiest thing in the world, Rei picked up Serena into the air with her one hand, by the neck.

"if you _ever_ hurt Elli, I will single handedly strangle you to death-" tightening her grip on Serena's windpipe as people watched in shock and horror "and when you're dead I will rip out your intestines and use them to decorate my room~ _**got it?**_"'

Serena was gasping, choking on the air, and trying to claw at Rei's hand but she didn't say a single word.

"_Answer me_" Rei half yelled, tightening her grip to the point where everyone was sure there would be bruises.

"O- KAY!" Serena choked out.

Rei let go of her older sister, and Yuno scrambled to help up the head of their family.

Holding her bruising neck

"You _filthy bitch_! How _dare_ you-"

"How dare _I_? How dare _**I**_? _You're_ the one who went berserk with _**god**_!"

"Why you _insolent-_"

"onee-sama!" Sawa-san exclaimed. Both Serena and Rei turned to face their brother.

"They've done nothing wrong!"

"nothing _**wrong**_?" the why is half of my family transformed?" the head of the family yelled hoarsely

"It was an accident" Sawa-san said calmly. "Listen. We'll have their memories erased, okay? They'll never suspect that anything happened, alright?" Serena glowered at him.

"Why is that _thing_ here?" she said pointing at Rei

"… Serena-sama?" Sashuna spoke up quietly "_I_ am the one who brought Rei here…" she was half hiding behind Sawa-san, when Serena's glare turned venomous.

Sashuna flinched back, and Yuno, with what little brotherly feeling he had for his sister, placed a hand on Serena's shoulder while looking at Sashuna guiltily.

"Maybe we should go now" he said calmly to the head of the Momori family.

Serena straightened up a bit and muttered "_**fine**_" before turning to leave

"But their memories better be erased"

"Of course"

A giant pressure seemed to be lifted from everyone's shoulders as Serena left.

Momiji hadn't realized how tightly he had been holding Elli's hand. His knuckles were white.

When he let go his fingers were sore and pulsed slightly.

But Elli hadn't felt it.

She was overcome by an enormous sense of dread that numbed her to the core.

"Am I really gonna have my memories erased?" she asked silently, but everyone heard.

The room was trapped in a deathly eerie quiet.

None of the Momori's could look at Elli; their heads bowed in guilt.

Except Rei. She turned to face her best friend, with her gaze full of sorrow and guilt.

Rei's unspoken answer rang in Elli's ears, as the thunder storm raged even worse than before outside.

**Well…. Yeah… procrastination!**

**It rocks 8D**

**How did you like it?**

**Was it weird?**

**I don't have very much practice writing in 3****rd**** person, and during the entire month or May I had finals and CST's to worry about so I didn't have very much time to type this… but I did for my other fruits basket story :P so it really sucks… **

**SCHOOL'S FINALLY OVER! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 8D I'm so happy! Ugh but all this week has been gosh darned finals –broods in corner about evil geometry final- **

**I haven't been able to go on the computer much, but….**

**I'm IN LOVE WITH MY PEN TABLET! **

**I've been drawing Izzy mostly… D: I obsess!**

**http:/ envylamperouge. deviantart. com/ #/d2ruf9p**

**because of Tyler Wizouski and Atsuko Sohma, I drew this. Its Izzy and Momiji. **

**The song is just be friends by Megurine Luka. The lyrics supposedly fit Izzy and Momiji's relationship very well, according to Tyler and Atsuko **

**And they made me record me drawing it D: the links to my crappy videos are in the description of the drawing TwT**

**It took FOREVER D: I like it any way~**

**Well, this is the last chapter I'm gonna be posting up… for a while… because I am now officially caught up with my actual typing. I'm in the process of writing 18 right now… and I'm one of THE laziest people you will me. So…. Don't hate me Q_Q**

**Original finish date: 6/10/10 (lookie! No updates in may 8D:) **


	18. memories

**-Momiji- January 1, 2010- 12:39 A.M.-**

Her memories are going to be erased…

But…

Which ones?

Lelouch was the first one to get his memories erased.

Elli and I are in Hatori's living room, and when Lelouch is done Elli will be getting her memories erased.

Elli leans her head against my chest quietly.

Nauto's with Hatori to assist him in any way, and to make sure that all memories required are suppressed.

There's a muted thump sounding from Hatori's office.

Lelouch won't remember the curse anymore.

Nauto steps in the living room and faces me and Elli.

"In a few minutes Ms. Iromom will have to go in, Momiji"

No one said anything for a while. Nauto passed a hand through his messy light purple hair.

"Nauto? What… what exactly will Elli be forgetting?" the doctor stood quiet and still for a moment.

"She'll have to forget everything related to the curse" my breath hitched a bit. My numb finger tips ached. Elli seemed to have understood what we were saying. The ragged edges in the hole of my soul _raged_.

"Even you" Nauto finished.

Elli shuddered

"But why?" I said in an urgent whisper, my voice thick with tears.

"You have to realize the curse is very secret, no one except those involved are supposed to know about it. If she and her brother are around you then their memories might be brought back."

My chest tightened, and I felt tears bubble over my eyes.

I held Elli closer to my chest.

"It'll be for the best, Momiji" Nauto said softly. He didn't sound like he meant it, and if he did, I still wouldn't believe him.

"Ms. Iromom, it's time" Hatori said solemnly, entering from the hall way.

Holding onto my kimono tighter Elli hesitated for a moment.

Then she stood up and followed Hatori and Nauto without a single word.

As they left I turned out all the lamps.

The only light that entered the room was from the hallway.

I sat with my back against the light.

I didn't want anyone to see the rest of the tears that slipped past me.

'_I didn't even get to say good bye_' I thought to myself. Then again… I never can say it, now can I?

**-Elli-**

I was scared.

No.

Scared is the understatement of the year.

I'm drop dead _**terrified**_.

Memories are precious.

Every single last one.

Since I don't have too many to begin with, I want to keep at least the ones I have _now_.

"Ms. Iromom, you will now be put under the process of memory suppression. All you memories having to do with the Sohma and Momori curse…. _Ms. Iromom_?" halfway through his sentence I realized I had started crying.

I could feel the large wet drops sliding down my face, and my throat tighten.

I raised a hand to wipe away the tears, but as soon as I did, new ones would appear. It was like a leaky faucet. No matter how much you tried to stop it from dripping, _it won't stop_.

It was embarrassing to be crying like this, but I couldn't stop myself.

The soft sobs erupting from my chapped lips made me feel pathetic.

My eyes were hurting.

I had goose bumps all over my skin.

"Ms. Iromom… we need to continue this" Hatori said

"No!" I cried out childishly in a harsh whisper.

"Please don't make me do this! Please don't make me forget Momiji!" Hatori and Nauto looked at me with pity clear in their eyes. I felt so ashamed. I must look like an idiot.

"I'm sorry Ms. Iromom, but we have to do this" sobs racked my body, shacking me fiercely.

"No… please… I don't want to forget him or Rei-Chan… please!"

"The curse is very serious business; we can't have just anyone know about it"

Please…

"I don't care about the curse! Momiji doesn't have it any more right? And I've known about Rei's for months now! I haven't told anyone!"

Nauto looked slightly shocked.

"You knew about Rei?" in between sobs I managed to stutter out

"Yeah… it was months ago when it happened. She turns into a pretty yellow bird" Nauto and Hatori exchanged a look.

"We still can't have anyone know about it…"

Drawing in a shaky breath I mumbled out

"I know…" but that doesn't mean I want to go through with it.

"If you were to stay with Momiji, Haru, or Rei after the memory suppression, the there's a chance that your memories can return, and we can't let that happen" Nauto said

I tried to stop crying.

I really did.

But… just _thinking_ of how my life would be without Momiji anymore… it just tore me apart…

A strangled sob escaped me

"I don't want to forget him!"

My sight was blurry beyond the point of being able to see anything but blobs, and my voice was thick and it cracked.

"I love him!" my hands were covering my face, though I don't remember placing them there. My nails were digging into my face and scalp a bit.

I wanted nothing more than to run out of the room and back into Momiji's arms, and have him tell me that everything was going to be fine.

"We love him too Ms. Iromom" Nauto said quietly.

"We really don't want to do this" the Sohma doctor said to me, but I couldn't look at him. I could barely think through my crying, and my sobs were on the verge of painful.

"But we have to protect our families" he finished.

The rapid flow of tears never let up a bit, but I forced myself to calm down the sobs a bit.

My sobs sounded a bit like I was half choking wile crying.

"Ms… Ms. Iromom?" Hatori asked after a while. I sniffed, and wiped my face with the sleeve of the kimono I was wearing, even though I knew I wasn't going to stop crying anytime soon.

"Do… do you _really_ love Momiji?"

I tried to calm down my breathing to properly answer him.

Through tears I managed to make out the basic shape of him.

"I love him… more than anything else!"

Hatori and Nauto exchanged a look.

"What exactly do you love about him?" Nauto asked, reclining in a big chair.

I took in a deep shuddering breath.

"Nearly everything"

"Nearly?" the purple haired doctor asked, amused.

"What is there that you don't like?"

I sniffed, and sob escaped me once again.

"He can be distant at times. Sometimes he'll lock himself up in his room all day and he won't even come out to eat until Haru drags him out of there" my voice was thick, and it sounded awful.

It was difficult breathing; it came in as wheezes.

"He's incredibly stubborn" out of the corner of my eye I saw the doctors nod to each other. "Once he's made his mind up about something, his mind never deviates from that track of mind." Nauto mumbled something to Hatori.

"He's secretive… he doesn't say much about his past… but now I guess I know why" I mumbled softly, my voice hoarse.

The already cold air, felt even colder when it touched my wet face and I was starting to think the goose bumps were going to stay on my skin permanently.

The room stayed quiet for a long time, except for the sniffles that still escaped me.

Nauto cleared his throat

"So there isn't anything else that you don't like about him?" he said chuckling a bit. I looked up at him through tear blurred eyes and thought to myself '_is there anything else that I shouldn't like about him?_' I guess he read my confusion because he continued talking

"Like the fact that he get so hyper at times that it's hard to resist getting annoyed? Or that he has an unquenchable sweet tooth? What about what about when he just drifts off into space at random moments?"

…

I'm usually hyper along with I'm, so I never noticed that…

My sweet tooth is worse than his…

And I thought it was really cute whenever he would wander off into space.

"What bout when he goes all robotic mode!" I hiccupped.

Robot mode?

"Nauto, enough" Hatori said "you're making this unnecessarily complicated. We should just proceed with this" I sobbed again, again I wrapped my arms around myself.

The rapid throbbing in my chest sharpened, and I thought that I was going to implode; I wish I had.

"Ms. Iromom, we need you to calm down for a moment" Hatori said.

_No!_ I never want to have my memories erased! And if you try and force me, I won't give up without a fight damnit!

Hatori moved his hand, trying to place it on my face. I swatted it away, much to their surprise

"No! Get away from me!" I shrieked. Nauto placed a hand on my shoulder and I wacked it off

"Don't touch me, you bastard!" leave me alone…. Please…!

"I want to stay with him!" I could barely understand what I was saying, but I kept talking

"Forever if possible! I love him! Please don't make me give him up! Please!" with only vague understanding, I realized I was yelling in German. My nails were biting into my scalp, and I felt like someone was choking me.

"Ms. Iromom"

"No!" I stood up abruptly, knocking over the chair I had been sitting on, and I leaned against the wall, not quite seeing where I was anymore.

_I wanna go home, I wanna go home!_

But… where is home?

'_Home is where the heart is~'_ I remember Lucy telling me once. And my heart's with Momiji. I felt a tightening in my chest as Hatori towered over me.

I scrunched up in the corner, hiding myself with my arms, like a little kid would. I feel so pathetic.

Whimpers escaped me, and the tightening feeling in my chest was at the point of being unbearable.

I wanted to scream, to yell out and pull some hair, maybe even claw at faces… but I stayed curled into the pathetic ball I put myself in.

I was so absorbed in self pity that I barely noticed when the room became quiet.

**-Momiji-**

The only thing that I could hear from the moment Elli left into that room, except very soft mumbling from down the hall, that I couldn't quite decipher because of the blood pounding in my ears.

After a long while there were yells coming out of the room. They were muffled, and I couldn't make out what they were saying, but I did know something. It was Elli. The sound was too high and too feminine to be either one of the doctors.

Then there was the sharp _smack_ of wood against wood.

For a moment that felt like eternity nothing made sense. It was just the motions of going through things. One long second I was sitting down, shocked senseless, the next I was yanking the door open to Hatori's office to find a huddled Elli in one corner, covering herself with her arms, and Hatori leaning towards her

I didn't really look at Hatori or Nauto, not really. The only thing I saw clearly was Elli.

I fell to my knees at her side, panic numbing my senses.

The only things I felt were my arms holding Elli tight against my chest, and her arms wrapped around my chest in return.

Her gasps, and whimpers, the only sound, apart from the heavy beat of blood in my ears.

I realized that we were both crying, the wetness on my face making the cold air only that much sharper that it was already.

We stayed like that for a while. Until Elli calmed down a bit.

I was exhausted; I imagined she was, too, after the part 24 we've experienced.

My eyes wandered away from Elli for a moment to the digital clock that was perched upon Hatori's desk. The glowing green numbers read out **1:38 **

Elli's breathing was getting steady, and deep; she was on the verge of sleep.

"Momiji" Hatori said quietly. I chose not to answer right away; for fear that he would still want to have Elli's memories erased.

"It's getting late. Maybe you should take Elli back to where she's staying"

My chest felt a lot lighter then; my worry evaporating a bit, for the moment.

I nodded, and stood up off the ground, dragging Elli to her feet along with me.

She sighed, but allowed me to lead her outside.

In all that was happening I had completely forgotten about the horrid storm that was trying to uproot everything that wasn't nailed down.

Elli shuddered. I think I may have too, but I was still numb. The air was ice cold, the wind shoving everything out of its way, and the rain hitting the ground and everything in its wake like water bullets.

Elli laughed, and then pulled me out into the rain. We were soaked immediately. I looked down at her face, the raven hair sticking to her face and neck in abnormal patterns and swirls, and a big tired grin plastered onto her face.

She spun around in the heavy rain and then called out to me

"Momiji! C'mon hurry up! We're gonna get soaked!" she laughed then. Light and airy, full of giddiness, as if the past two hours hadn't happened at all.

I grinned. She was fine. Her memories would be intact for at least until morning.

I tried to keep up with her. The rain making everything slippery, and muddy, made it complicated to run along with her.

When I did catch up to her, I wrapped my arms around her waist, lifted her up to eye level and spinned around once, nearly falling, all the while her laughter ringing in my ears.

When we were outside my house, in front of the glass sliding door that lead to my old room, the one where Elli would be sleeping in, I laughed and then Elli asked, her voice strained from all that happened

"What's so funny?" instead of answering her with words I pointed to our reflection, made perfectly clear by the fact that the inside of the house being pitch black at the moment, and there being hardly any light outside to disturb the image.

We were a complete mess.

She laughed whole-heartedly, and at that moment my heart fluttered so quickly, I thought for a split second I was having some sort of heart attack or stroke.

My head felt light and my mouth went dry, and I only wanted to do one thing at that moment.

So I did.

I picked up Elli and tipped her face up to look at me. Her face was streaked with black from her makeup, and her eyes were red and slightly puffy, with dark bags underneath them; from eye liner or fatigue, I will never know,

Her hair was tangled, and pasted to her face.

I didn't care.

In my eyes, she was the most beautiful person on the face of the earth.

I bent my head down to meet her lips with mine in a warm passionate kiss that may have lasted hours for all I cared to think.

We broke apart, taking deep intakes of air. Her face was a bright scarlet that I'm sure matched my own.

For that moment, we were inside our own little bubble; something that no one else could reach.

For this moment, it didn't matter that Elli might have to get her memories erased tomorrow

For this moment, nothing else existed. Just me and Elli.

For this moment, the ragged edges of the gap in my soul, did not burn.

The gap was nonexistent, for this moment.

Elli smiled up at me, a breath taking smile…

Her eyes were warm, her complexion almost glowing, with a vibrant shade of red. Her wet hair clung to her face like a curling frame, and her lips looked slightly swollen, though I'm not sure why.

Like I said: _breathtaking_

I was left staring at her for a moment, the air completely knocked out of me, like someone had punched my stomach, a dull ache in my chest where my lungs should be.

It took me a second to remember how to breathe. Elli giggled and then asked me a question, though it took a moment for the question to reach my brain

"_Momiji, do I really look that bad?"_ I blinked once. Twice

"Bad?" I chuckled once.

"I've never seen a single _second_ when you look bad, my liebling"

The blush that had been fading reappeared on her beautiful face by tenfold.

She muttered illegible words, twiddling with her wet hair for a moment before I muttered

"Shut up and kiss me, will ya?" My lips in such close proximity with hers that they touched, barely, a few times before I pressed them fully against hers.

When I started feeling dizzy and pulled back she giggled.

"c'mon, let's go inside, liebling" I said with a smile.

Elli smiled, and both of us- soaked to the bone- entered my house.

**Envylamperouge: yay! No month long absence! **

**I wasn't happy with this chapter. It was originally gonna stop off at my usual limit of around 1600 words, which would stop at about… **

**Where it said '**Then there was the sharp _smack_ of wood against wood.**'**

… **But I wasn't satisfied. So I kept adding. And adding. And soon it was over 3000 words.**

**But I cut some of it off, because it seemed TOO excessive, so now I have the beginning of chapter 19 going :D**

**I wrote from that one line to 3000 words in one night ;3**

**AND AT MY DAD'S BIRTHDAY OF ALL PLACES AND TIMES! XD ;A; I'm sorry daddy~**

**I really don't like my older siblings…. **

**I was gonna post this up on the 28****th ****when it was well over 3000 word, but I cut it off…. ;A; **

**FAIL. **

**I wonder if people still read this even after my long absence… ;A;**

**Please review~ (if anyone still reads this Q.Q)**

**Original finish date: 6/26/10**


	19. don't leave me!

**-Momiji-**

Elli stared at the bed for a long moment, then to her clothes, then back to the bed.

Amused, I asked

"Are you gonna go to sleep like that?" while looking at her soaked clothes.

She mumbled something under her breath that I didn't quite catch, and then walked over to her suits cases.

"The shower's that way" I mentioned to her while pointing out of the hallway

"Thank you, Miji" she said smiling. She yawned and her body swayed slightly forward, like she was about to fall onto her bed.

"Are you okay?" she looked up at me with heavily lidded eyes, and blinked slowly once. Twice; like she was processing what I had just said

"Hnn? Oh… yes… I'm... good" I watched from the doorway as she pulled out several items out of her bag, including her… personal things...

"Oyasumi!" I said in a rush, leaving the room to get to mine.

I slumped down onto the floor of the room I was in, and then my eyes wandered over the spare room.

Elli was staying in my old bedroom, and I was in the guest bedroom. The walls were bare for my entire childhood, and most of my adolescence. I never had a use for this room, except maybe to store all the clothes I had. But after I had met Izzy, we would spent a lot of time either at my house or hers, so I had no choice to decorate the room for my crush (at the moment)

The walls that had been plain paper screens until I was 16, had a pastel yellow wallpaper over them, and the large plush bed had a thick down comforter in a homey shade of lavender.

The closet had a few changes of clothes that belonged to Izzy.

The drawers had a few photo frames with pictures of me, Kisa, Tohru… Izzy.

The curtains in the room had bunnies on the edges of them, because Izzy liked them.

There wasn't a mirror in the room, by request of Izzy.

This was my first time in the room since she had died.

Nothing had been touched in almost two years.

How could I be able to stay in this room—_Izzy's_ room.

I slowly got up, and noted that the shower was running.

My head was spinning by the time I was standing fully.

My throat constricted again, and my knees shook as I walked over to the dresser.

Sprawled on top of it was a yellow plush rabbit. It was one I had given to Izzy before we had started dating.

Time seemed to stand still at the moment. Terror seized me and robbed me of my senses.

_Why am I scared?_

In a rush every sense came back to me… and what was worse… every single emotion I had flooded into my system again.

Every memory of Izzy…

Every sight of her beautiful, delicate face with emerald like eyes, and framed by fire red strands of hair…

Every touch of her smooth porcelain like skin, or the feel of her rose petal lips against mine…

Every sound emitted through her petal-like lips that would sound as beautiful as the chiming of bells in the breeze…

Every scent of dark chocolate that seemed to follow her wherever she went at all times…

The taste that lingered on my lips after every sweet kiss she planted on them…

With a violent shudder I emerged from my fantasies, startled to find tears fresh on my face once more. The horrid burning of the hole in my heart felt like it had ripped through out my entire body… I gasped in a strangled breath and ended up half choking on it. I exhaled it roughly with a gurgling sound accompanying it.

I was shivering, and every nerve in my body was a live wire.

I thought that I had felt bad when I was crying for Elli…

But this… this is just so bad… I wanna die… I want to go see her… I want to go see Izzy…

I lay there on the cold floor crying. The only sounds I heard besides my harsh ragged sobbing was the pounding of the rain and wind outside the walls, and the shower coming to a stop in the bathroom.

I sucked in a harsh breath that hurt my throat in an effort to stop crying.

I stumbled up to a stand, and leaned against the door, pressing my heated forehead against the freezing wood screen.

I pulled in several shuddering breaths, and harshly wiped my face with the sleeve of my kimono.

I bit my lips to try and keep the sobs from escaping, and held my breath. I strained to hear if Elli had left the bathroom.

I heard the soft _swish_ of the door opening, and then the soft muted thuds of her footsteps going down the hall in the direction of the room she was staying in.

I strained my ears further to hear if she entered the room.

I barely managed to hear the faintest of swishes of the door opening and closing over the loud beating of my heart against my eardrums.

As quietly as I could possibly manage I walked out of the bedroom, leaving all traces off Izzy intact, and I made my way through the dark hall to the bathroom.

The mirrors were still covered in condensation from the steam and the flowery smell of something Elli used still hung heavily in the air.

I quickly climbed into the shower stall, fully dressed in a heavy kimono, and started to shower. I set the water to nearly scalding.

The hot water burned my skin and made the cloth of the kimono hang damply onto my goosebump covered skin.

I stood under the burning water for a while longer before the chill that ran through me started to ebb away, then, with some difficulty, I took off the damn freezing kimono.

Under the blistering heat of the shower I let the tears fall free. Every inch of my skin was on fire, and in pain. I couldn't get thoughts of Izzy out of my mind. Because of that even my soul was set to burning.

I felt so _guilty_. I loved Izzy so damn much… but I love Elli too. I feel like I'm betraying Izzy.

I stood outside the door of the guest bedroom. Izzy's room. I took in a deep shuddering breath.

_Izzy_.

I want to see her…

So much…

I want to have her by my side again. To hold her, and touch her and have her _be_ here.

I remember the day before she died… Izzy…

_We had been in the living room, and I was playing my violin for her. She sat on the couch holding the yellow stuffed rabbit to her chest, staring at me through thick red eyelashes, while a smile graced her face. As the piece I was playing slowed to a close she clapped her hands together._

"_That was wonderful Miji-kun!" she had exclaimed, grinning widely. I remembered that I had blushed at the comment and tripped over my words_

"_You really think so, Izzy-kun?" she had stood up and made her way over to me to plant a kiss on my unsuspecting lips_

"_It was absolutely amazing!" _

_I could feel the blood rushing to my face as she giggled. Nearly 9 months of dating, and I still hadn't gotten used how I felt like I was walking on air whenever she kissed me._

_I laughed and thanked her_

"_I'm so glad you liked it, Izzy-kun!" I looked into her mesmerizing emerald green eyes that seemed to glitter in this moment. A small content smile held up her full pink lips. _

_I caressed her cheek and whispered in her ear_

"_You're so beautiful, koibito…"_

_My heart fluttered at the sight of her cheeks turning a bright pink._

Through the window I noticed the lighting was getting worse, and the thunder had gotten louder. They seemed to be getting closer to my house every second.

Accompanying a certain boom of thunder a scream sounded throughout the house.

"_Don't say things like that Miji..." she had mumbled so quietly I could barely hear her, and then she dropped your gaze to the floor._

_I cupped her face in my hands and turned her head so that she was looking directly at me._

"_So you're telling me that I'm not supposed to compliment my fiancée, koibito~?" her emerald eyes had widened and she had stuttered out the word_

"_f- Fiancée..?"_

I bolted up from the floor and ran, stumbling throughout the ink black house to reach Elli's room.

She was huddled on the bed, wrapped up in the duvet; her eyes were squeezed shut and clutching her head in a feeble attempt to drown out the noise of the thunder.

Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes again, and I felt my heart sink.

Seeing Elli like this…

_I smiled at her my heart hammering as fast as a jackhammer._

"_Of course Izzy-kun! I wouldn't do __**that**__ with someone I didn't intend to have as my bride!"_

_Her eyes widened and stared at me for a long while. _

"_**You**__… want to marry __**me**__?" I thought I had felt my heart stop for a moment when a thought flickered across my mind _

… _What if she didn't want me?_

_A sense of dread washed over me at that moment. I was so scared…_

"_Unless… you don't __**want**__ to be my bride…?"_

_I mumbled to her, my spirits sinking_

I ran over to Elli as another bolt of lightning illuminated the room.

I pulled her into my embrace and immediately she wrapper her arms around my fiercely.

With every flash of lightning and crack of thunder I could feel her flinch against me, and she hid her face in my chest, clinging to be feebly.

I tried to comfort her but my voice was drowned out by the loud claps of thunder.

"It's okay Elli…" I kept muttering to her.

"_It's not that!" she had exclaimed, taking my hands in hers_

"_It's just that…" she mumbled "'it doesn't really make sense to me"_

_She looked into my eyes then said_

"_How can someone as sweet and caring as you, love someone like… __**me**__?" I had smiled and pressed my lips to hers_

"_How can I __**not**__ love you, Izzy-kun?" she had smiled- __**that**__ smile- the one that made my heart skip a beat. _

"_There are plenty of reasons not to love me" she had stated. _

"_I'm rude, selfish, violent-"_

"_You're also kind and sincere, you can be very gentle when you want to be" I countered. _

We stayed like that for a while, huddled on the bed trying to ignore the thunder and lighting. 

Finally the storm seemed to be letting up a bit. I brushed away a few damp locks away from Elli's frightened face and then the loudest crash of thunder was heard, it was so loud the windows seemed to rattle. The bright white light engulfed the entire room, and Elli screamed.

Her hands balled up the material of the shirt I was wearing and I tightened my hold on her.

"Don't leave me!" she cried out

"_I'm bratty, and stubborn, and-"_

"_Your stubbornness and determination are some of the reasons why I love you, Izzy"_

_Her lips pressed into a thin line_

"_What? You can't think of anything else, koibito?" I teased her._

"_I can think of plenty reasons, but with every reason I'll give you, you'll counter back with something weird"_

For a split second my mind went blank. Where had I heard that before…?

**-Flashback- may 21 2008-**

_**Oh god**_**… **

**We're all standing in the forest, in the place where Izzy died…**

**The small shrine was being blessed by a priest.**

**What an awful funeral.**

**We don't even have her body. **

"**How do you even know she's dead?" Kyo asked quietly. "You don't even have proof, do you?"**

**Chu-chi and I flinched. **

_**How do we know**_**? **

**Because… **_**she's not here**_**. You can't **_**feel**_** her presence anymore… **

**The moment she fell into that… **_**thing**_**… it was like she was wiped straight off the face of the earth. Completely disappeared. **

**And then… with what Nauto said…**

"**I used to have an older sister" Nauto said answering Kyo's question.**

"_Weird?" I asked, puzzled_

"_yup." Her short answer made me laugh_

"_How is it weird?" I asked pulling her onto my lap_

"_It just is! You gloss over all my imperfections…" I intertwined our fingers then said calmly_

"_I don't gloss over the. Not at all. I see them perfectly, but I don't care about them. I love you, Izzy… I love everything about you, every imperfection included." She gave an airy laugh then leaned back further into my chest._

"_Like that. You always say things that are too nice to be true"_

"**What does that have to do with anything?" Kyo muttered.**

**Nauto sighed. He sounded exhausted. Like if he had been drained of life. Like chu-chi and I had been. **

"**She was the previous Leo. The one right before Izzy" chu-chi took in a deep shuddering breath. **

**I could only **_**imagine**_** what it could have been like to lose your entire immediate family… **

**There was a strange feeling in my chest. It was burning, and it took up the entity of most of my chest. **

"**She died… the same way as Izzy. Through that… thing" Nauto finished**

"**The next day Izzy was born possessed as the Leo, so we all knew that my sister was dead. And because Izzy died the same way… I think it's correct to assume that she's dead as well"**

**Chu-chi sank to her knees in front of the shrine. **

"**Oh god…. Kami-san, Buddha, who ever the hell's up there…" she whispered, her voice strained "please..! Please let this all be just a dream… please don't let them all have gone! Not like this…! Please! Oh god… please!"**

**A heart wrenching sob shook her small frame, and in a harsh whisper though gritted teeth she swore**

"**God damn it! Don't leave me!" Makenna kneeled down next to her and tried to offer support but chu-chi was much too upset to withstand any physical contact.**

"**No! NO! **_**Don't leave me**_**!"**

**It took me a while to realize I was crying as well. My papa kneeled down beside me and tried to get me into an embrace but I pushed him away.**

_**No.**__**no… go away. Leave me alone to suffer. **_

"**Don't leave me!" chu-chi and I both said.**

**Please… don't leave me. **

I tightened my hold on Elli, until I was sure that my arms were going to hurt, and tried to comfort her. Neither one of us took notice that the thunderstorm had stopped abruptly.

Neither of us cared.

Not at all.

"Don't…" Elli said feebly

"Please…" I turned her to face me and kissed her softly. Answering her request.

_I won't…_

**-Envylamperouge- OHMYFUDGINGGOSH I FAIL SO FUGDING HARDCORE.**

**Please. I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive me for being gone for so damn long…**

**Since July 1****st****!**

**QnQ hnng~!**

**Guess how many times I wrote then re-wrote this~**

**Guess~**

**I DARE YOU =n=**

***cough61/2damnfudgingtimescough***

**School is hard QnQ**

**I never thought that sophomore year could be so difficult… I'm failing all classes except P.E.!**

**I think =3=**

**And apparently I now have a husband (female), a mistress, a sancha, and my husband has 6 sanchas and my sancha has a sancha, and I have a son who was created by my mistress and my husband and somehow ended up in my uterus (it's a Pichu) and a second child who was conceived last Thursday (it's a Togepi) **

**QnQ and my husband has a boyfriend as well~**

**I couldn't get any more ideas for this thing after school started.**

**And I have like 8 pages written on my notebook for a different fic I'm thinking of starting for Kuroshitsuji, that provides a bit of a back story to Emiko's life when she was alive back in the 1800's. **

**And during my 3 month absence I turned 15, found out I have to wear glasses, got bitten by a dog three times (I still have a scar on my leg D:) twisted my ankle like two weeks ago, and~~**

**I'm GOING TO MURDER MY COUSIN. ._. I swear…**

**BUT~~ COMPLETELY ASIDE FROM THAT POINT!**

**I couldn't resist adding some momijiXizzy fluff drabble in that. Seriously. It demanded to be in this.**

**All nice and fluffy right in the middle of a horrible time period of Momiji's new relationship.**

**I'm so mean QnQ**

**And to those who reviewed and/or PM'ed me I'm sorry if I never replied QnQ**

**I lost track of who I did, or did not reply to… so… yeah…. I'm so sorry…**

**Please… if you don't hate me… please review… even though I've been gone for over 3 months… I'm sorry…**

**I SWEAR I'LL START WORKING ON THE NEXT CHAPTER ASAP!**

**P.S: a sancha is a lover or a second girlfriend. Sancho is the male equivalent. **

**Original finish date: 10/6/10 (I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LONG ANSENCE HGNNN! QnQ)**


	20. rei

**-Rei-**

I'm an idiot.

Of the highest degree.

**EVER.**

Fuck.

'_Whenever the empress is feeling an emption strongly it sometimes makes an effect on the weather' _

The thought rammed into my mind constantly leaving a deeper impression every time it struck.

Hell…. All our moods affect the weather…

That's part of the 'gift' of being an Alice.

But…

To have created a storm of the caliber… I guess that they're all upset down there.

I sat across the room from everyone else, with a few sets of eyes following my movements.

One set belonging to the sister of the only person I knew in the mortal world who could use 'the power'

And another belonging to Izzy's sister.

Sakura stared intently at me as I paced the room, while chu-chi's gaze just followed the motion.

While pacing I debated against myself whether or not to go check up on Izzy in the underworld, or to wait here for Elli and Lelouch to come out.

The claps of thunder kept getting worse, my own nervousness adding to the level of harshness.

Only a few moments later Kyo and Yuki came out with an unconscious Lelouch sandwiched between them.

My heart sunk as I saw him so… vulnerable…

Last time he had gotten his memories eased was when I did it when he saw me as a bird…

Now…

"where's he going to go now?" chu-chi asked, running a free hand through her new pixie-styled haircut, though her bangs were still chin length and swept over to the side.

"He won't be able to go back to California with you guys, will he?" she continued.

For a moment I was taken aback at the way light reflected off her eyes.

They looked nearly identical to Izzy's own eyes.

Both so deep, and caring, full of compassion, yet so distant at the same time.

How the emerald irises refracted light very much like the gemstone the color was named after.

The flecks near the pupil were lighter in color, like highlights.

It took me a while to think of an answer.

"No, he won't, he'll have to stay here in Japan" I responded.

"Here?" Sakura asked quizzically. "Isn't he French?" my eyes wandered out the window for the nth time, seeing the raindrops splatter violently against the window.

"Yes, but he moved here after his last year of high school"

"Wait, isn't he the same age as Elli?" one of the 'twins' asked.

"He is, but he started school early so he finished school a year earlier than Elli"

"Like you?" the other 'twin' asked. I nodded.

"So either way, he came here to study in an exclusive art school, where we met. He, two other people and I shared a loft together close to the academy.

"You lived with him?" Sakura asked wearily.

"Yeah. For a couple of months before…. Certain things happened, and I moved in with another classmate of mine. But anyway, after the first year ended he decided to take the next year away from his studies so he could really meet his little sister" the 'twins' shared a glance.

"I bet if he went back to the loft, his roommates would accept him with open arms again." I ended.

"I see… we'll have to get him there as soon as possible then" Kirosawa said, leaning back into his chair. I eyed my brother for a moment, my words sitting in my stomach like a big heavy rock.

"Yeah…" I finally managed to say.

Right now Elli would probably be getting her memories erased…

"Then what will you do?" chu-chi asked, a maternal ring in her voice.

"Will you guys move out of Elli's house?"

There was a muted thud from the house next to the one where we were at, that sounded vaguely like wood smacking against wood.

Now… Elli's gone. A pang of regret and sadness smacked me.

"… Probably" I answered solemnly.

'Izzy would like that' I though, slightly regretful.

"Will you three stay together?" Sakura asked.

I sighed, twiddling with a strand of my hair.

Outside the storm was getting worse with each passing second.

"_What the hell's going on down there?_' I thought nervously.

"I don't know" I said, suddenly edgy.

I sat quietly for a moment, willing myself to disappear at that moment, into the underworld to check up on my 'family'

Sakura rose from where she sat

"Maybe it's time for us to all get some rest. Akito-sama has been gracious enough to allow us to spend the night, because of the storm"

There were mummers of agreement here and there, and within a few minutes chu-chi and I were the only ones left in the large room.

"Rei-san…" she called out to me. I looked at her, and then quickly diverted my eyes. For the briefest of moments I thought I had seen Izzy there.

Slowly I made myself look back at her. She was chu-chi. Not Izzy.

No matter how much they looked alike.

A thought had crossed my mind at that moment

'_What if Izzy was hurt? What if it was the cause of this storm?_'

"Yeah?" I answered, my voice shaking slightly.

"Are you going to wait for Elli here?" her voice was soft, motherly, and…. Tired.

I don't mean it like if she was sleepy, but like if she's been through a lot.

"Yeah…" my voice sounded quiet. Too quiet…

"You care for her very much, don't you, Rei-san?"

A soft smiled touched my lips

"Yeah… she's a really good friend. I'll be sad to let her go like this."

The room was quiet for a moment.

I didn't even hear as chu-chi rose to sit next to me.

"How has Momiji been?" she asked.

I turned my head to look into those eyes again.

So full of sorrow, yet completely unmarred by any bitterness or hatred.

"Momiji's been… good. He's been smiling more often these past few weeks…"

"But now this…" she said, depths of sadness to deep in her voice, it chilled me to the bone.

"To lose the two people he loved so much in that way… both being lost so quickly…" I added.

"It must have been mad enough to lose Izzy-" I noticed chu-chi flinch "and now Elli…"

Chu-chi rubbed her eye with the heel of her palm.

"It's like pouring lemon juice into a wound that was just starting to heal. It rips open the wound again, and makes it worse than in the beginning." She said solemnly.

I nodded in agreement.

The room stayed quiet for a very long while, the only sounds were the sharp clicks of rain against the surfaces of the house, and the winds howling.

'_How are you down there, Izzy?'_

I looked at chu-chi.

"Do you ever think of the afterlife?" I found myself asking her.

Her big green eyes looked into mine.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"… Like what a soul does after it dies. Does it watch over people? Does it start a new life? Or is it reborn into a new body, getting a fresh start on life?"

Chu-chi took a deep breath. The look in her eyes obviously said that she had indeed thought about it.

"Please don't think that I'm weird, or stupid, or just a hopeless dreamer… but yes… I believe that in the afterlife the soul continues to 'live', in a way, and watches over its loved ones." I wanted to know what she thought. If she still thought of her sister.

"I had this very odd dream back, months ago, it was… stupid I guess you can say." She sighed

"There were these columns of different colored fire arranged in a circle…" I felt my pulse rise a bit. 'Different colored fire'?

Could it be she knows about the power, as well?

"there was pink… orange… white… blue… one that was split into dark green and light green, a yellow one, and in the center of them all was a black one" I felt my breathing stop.

In order… she had recited the colors of the powers the imperial court has from least to greatest, with the exception of Lacey. _In order_.

"Then the fire disappeared and people replaced them…" goose bumps ran up my spine

"From the pink one came a man, who slightly resembled Momiji, but with darker eyes and hair" chi-chan…

"From the orange was a little girl with short blue hair, and bright red eyes" Emiko…

"From the white one… was a woman who looked a lot like Sakura, but older" Sochiro… my heart felt like it was about to stop

"Then… from the blue one was you" her eyes flickered with mine. I felt as though ice shard had been lodged into every single one of my bones.

Did she see that my face got paler or the nervous look in my eye? Did she notice that I was trembling slightly, or that I had goose bumps all over my skin?

"from the half dark green, half light green one was a woman with medium length white hair, cut into layers, and at the ends the white was fading into a blackish dark green color." Sokiko…

"From the yellow one was a tall man with waist long blue-black hair" Takeo…

"Then in the center… was a woman who looked like she was in her twenties, with long fire red hair, and a simple white dress." Izzy…

"'all hail the empress' they had all said" chu-chi started playing with her bangs.

"Then the small girl said 'all hail empress Issabella!' and then I knew… it was Izzy" I couldn't feel my fingertips anymore.

"They had all said their names…. But I can't recall them… but they all said their last name was Momori…"

I took in a deep shaky breath

"You're right… that certainly is odd…"

Chu-chi sighed and tucked her bangs behind her ear.

"It is, isn't it? But it got me thinking about the afterlife… I'd like to think that when a person dies, their soul goes onto another 'life' where they can 'live' in a way, and they are able to have their own kind of… world I guess you could say? They could possibly watch over people if they wanted to" chu-chi said, a wistful look in her eyes

"If that was true… I started off "what do you think Izzy would think of all this mess?" I asked her. Chu-chi laughed

"She'd probably go crazy, knowing that someone else loved Momiji, and that he was grieving yet again" with the last part of her comment her smile vanished.

"She'd be upset if she knew that he or I were sad…" what could I say?

Hey~ I _know_ she's upset over this! Just look outside the window! Her mood affects the weather, and the weathers insane! Yeah!

She went practically emo after she died, because you and Momiji were emo! And I know all this because she's one of my closest friends! I travel to and from the afterlife using freaky magic! Woo~!

… Right~

"Well I wouldn't really know… I never really met your sister." _Your sister._

It sounds oddly detached from the idea I get when I think of Izzy.

_Your sister._

You can't really think of Izzy as anyone's sister… she seemed to be her own entity, not connected to people…

Chu-chi smiled weakly.

"The last time you saw her was back in August of 2007, right? That time when you got into a fight?" the smile wiped off her face. I turned my gaze to the hard wood floors.

"Yeah… I didn't mean to hurt her, though…" I could swear I could feel chu-chi looking at me.

I wanted to go see Izzy. Now. The storm was just… oh god…

"Shouldn't they be out by now?" chu-chi asked.

"Huh?" who?

"Oh! Elli... right… they should have been out by now…"

Nauto came in through the sliding doors, and his red eyes, which reminded me so much of Sochiro's, widened a bit

"You guys are still here?" the young doctor walked over to us

"Yeah, we're waiting for Momiji and Elli" chu-chi said calmly

"Oh… they left already, about five minutes ago."

Wait…

"They left? Together? But, what about Elli's memories?" I asked, a bit on the frantic side.

Nauto laughed.

"Yeah, that little lady sure can put up a fight. She wouldn't let us go _near_ her, let alone erase her memories." He said, a bit of awe in his voice

"So you're not going to erase her memories?" the redhead beside me asked.

"Not now. Hatori-san and I will ask Akito what to do tomorrow… or later today I should say" he laughed again.

I looked down at my watch. It was about fifteen more minutes until two in the morning.

My god…

"Alright, thanks for telling us, Nauto." Chu-chi said before rising. She turned to face me before she left the room

"Try to get some rest, Rei-san. It's been a long night" you're telling me… I smiled

"Right, thanks. Oyasumi, chu-chi-san" she nodded.

Nauto's gaze swept over the room, then looked at me

"There's quite a storm out there, isn't there, Rei-san?" he said, trying to break the silence

"Yeah…" the room stayed quiet for a while longer.

"You know, they say that the god's moods affect the weather… maybe one of them is upset?" I laughed. So he knew part of it.

"yup." I rose from my seat.

"Nauto-sama" he turned to face me "thank you for leaving her memories for now" I said, bowing.

When I rose I saw a smile on his face.

"You're so different from your siblings." He said quietly. _I could say the same thing about you. _I smiled and pressed my index finger to my lips

"Ssh! It's a secret that they're related to me that closely, Nauto-sama" he smiled.

"How could I forget? Well, good night Rei-san" he said walking out of the room.

"Good night, Nauto-sama"

The moment I was sure he was out of the room I made a run for it outside.

The rain was pelting had against my skin, though the kimono, but I knew I had to hurry.

The blustering winds tried several times to knock me off balance, but somehow I managed to stay in my steady pace of running.

Under the cover of the trees I opened the portal to the underworld.

Though the wind and rain were relentless the blue fiery edges of the portal remained unperturbed, unable to be touched by anything in the mortal world.

The rain had already soaked completely through my kimono, and the water made the already heavy garment feel like a thousand pounds.

I gripped the fiery blue edges of the portal to aid me in my jump to the other world, the extra weight of the kimono only making it more difficult. I landed with a soft thud on the balls of my feet, though the kimono slapped the linoleum floors harshly.

… Linoleum?

I looked around my surroundings… I think I'm in a hospital room…

The smell of antiseptic burned my nose slightly, and the steady beeping of a heart monitor was quickly becoming annoying.

There was a soft rhythmic _whoosh_ing of air from an oxygen mask from somewhere behind me.

I heard a rough whispery voice from the same place as the oxygen mask, and I turned around to be faced by a pastel green curtain, concealing the view of the soul from me.

The raspy voice was saying

"Yes… I saw things…" though I could barely understand the voice. It sounded eerily familiar. A feeling of unease knotted my stomach. _That voice..._

"Are you sure, Izzy?" a soft, motherly voice asked. _Izzy…?_ I felt lighter than air at the moment.

_Izzy?_

She was hurt… or she wouldn't be here… I reached out to pull away the curtain.

I took in a deep breath.

"Izzy?"

**Envylamperouge: yay~ no 6 month long absence… QAQ**

**Eh… not entirely please with this chapter, but I knew I had to get it out of the way….\so there you go.**

**An all Rei chapter. **

**Yush. **

**And to make it up to you all, I'm trying to make the chapters longer now….**

**Instead of the 'usual' 1600 words, I'll try to make them around 2500… or something**

**I already have a bit of the next chapter written…. Well it was written since after chapter 16, but I couldn't find an appropriate place for it until now… and it will be in the next chapter.**

**Original post date: 10/19/10 (yes, it was finished yesterday, but I was too tired to post it up the same day. only 13 days~~ QAQ)**


	21. Richard

**-Izzy -**

"Izzy" Sokiko-sama called to me

Kirimi- err… Richard…helped me to sit up in the hospital bed, and then he helped me readjust the oxygen mask I was being made to wear.

"Thank you" I muttered hoarsely to him.

I feel so… disgusting….

Like I've been beaten senseless by raging cavemen, turned inside out and thrown into a blender going at full speed.

But… I still feel a hell of a lot better than I did a few hours ago.

"How do you feel?" Sokiko-asked me. "Are you alright?" she followed up.

I nodded my head weakly, and Richard squeezed my hand gently.

She stayed quiet for a moment.

"Err… did you. _See_ things?" she asked quietly.

I felt a shudder go through me. Goose bumps raked across my skin

Those…. _Things…_

There used to be a group of people… they were called Alice's…

The first ones- the original ones- were very powerful people.

They had power…. _The_ power.

Though they never knew what it was, they used it often.

But they could never control it properly. They let the power take over their minds, and they all eventually became insane.

After they died, they refused to stay dead, and were all reincarnated. Multiple times.

And though they always had a new body, with a different set of memories, the original Alice's were so powerful that they would remain the same person. The original Alice, deep in the subconscious of its new life.

Since the original Alice's soul was so powerful, it would try to take over its new soul, trying to kill the new subconscious.

When it does that it's called an 'Alice Attack'

With each generation that passes, they aren't able to do it as often, and there were several factors to contribute to that as well, such as age, mental and physical strength, and other things I can't recall at this moment, but though the attacks are few and far in between…. They become more severe and violent.

But…

Oh god…

The nightmares that came along with the attacks….

They're the same ones I saw every birthday….

A woman in red, slashing at everyone and everything in sight…. Her beautiful sword dripping in blood that looked like glittering rubies in the fire light…

The first Alice… the Alice of Spade…

"Yes… I saw things…" I mumbled in my coarse voice to Sokiko-sama.

My voice sounds so… ugly…

"Izzy?" a soft voice asked.

"Rei-chan?" I asked.

The pastel green curtain was pulled aside to reveal Rei, though her face was paler than usual and her eyes seemed troubled.

Her well shaped figure was masqueraded by a large, chunky, unflattering, and completely soaked kimono.

Wow…

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" I barely managed to ask, my throat protesting against me, and the oxygen mask muffling the sound. But seriously…. What a sight for sore eyes…. Literally…. My eyes still felt grainy and watery… and what a sight!

Her brow furrowed after I spoke, and it took me a while to understand why.

Well… I sure am a sight too, now aren't I?

The oxygen mask was large and clunky on my face, and my hair had been hacked off to above my shoulders. Again.

My face was still pale, and my cheeks were still sunken

There were several IV's and tubes, and whatchamacallits sticking out of my arms, and such…

"What…. _Happened_?" she asked, breathless.

Sokiko cleared her throat.

"Rei, don't you think it would be… _best_ if you changed out of those soaked clothes?" she said, a bit testily.

Translation: change your clothes, NOW. You're making a mess!

Rei looks down at her soaked kimono, then back at me.

"Izzy…?" she asked timidly, as if asking for my permission to go get changed.

I wanted to laugh, but I hurt too much all over to do anything.

"Go get changed, Rei-chan. I'm not going anywhere." I say, but it's difficult to do so.

She eyes me wearily for a moment before she turned around with a tired sigh and leaves with Sokiko to go get changed.

"Must've been a hell of a storm out there, ne, Izzy?" Richard said quietly, running his thumb over the knuckles of my hand.

With a slight struggle I manage to intertwine our fingers. With his help.

"I hate this" I mutter to myself.

I hate it. Hate. Hate. Hate.

I hate feeling so weak.

I hate being so dependent on others.

I hate being pitied.

I hate not being able to do anything about it.

Hate, hate, hate.

"It'll be alright Izzy" Richard said comfortingly.

I've known his for only a few hours and already I feel this… kinship with him…. a close bond…

But after all, he is my spirit animal… so there's a reason to why I feel this bond.

"Do you need anything?" he asks.

I mutter no, and then peer into his eyes.

Reflections of my own.

His dark, inky black hair catches my attention for a moment, and I think to myself…

If his eyes were brown… he could pass for that wretched girl Elli's… _twin. _

I try to tighten my grip in his fingers, but my attempt was feeble.

Richard sensed my panic, and squeezed my hand lightly

"Don't worry, Izzy." He said reassuringly.

He smiled at me- my smile. The one I had… the one meant for other people, not myself.

'_But there's plenty to worry about'_

I just barely got Richard… and now I feel as if I'm losing him to Elli already!

"Don't go" I manage to get out in a harsh whisper.

His eyes- my eyes- looked into mine and with the utmost sincerity he said to me in a clear voice

"I will never leave your side, your highness" he smiled down at me, and then looked up, past the green curtains.

There was a soft _click-click_ of heels on the floor of the hospital.

Voices approached us.

Sokiko opened the curtain, followed by a newly changed Rei-chan.

She had changed out of that horrid kimono, into a soft yellow nightgown, with pale silver trimmings.

Her long white-blonde hair was pulled into two long low ponytails (I hate the word pigtails for them…)

"So are you going to tell me what happened, _now_?" she asked, obviously tired, and fighting for words.

"She had an Alice Attack" Sokiko said plainly. Way to go for the dramatics Okaa-san…

Rei-chan's face went blank for a moment.

"… _What?_"

**-Rei- **

"An… Alice Attack?" she suffered from an Alice Attack? Already?

My gaze went from Izzy's frail form laid across the hospital bed, to the man sitting at her side.

He was taller than her… maybe by a few inches…

His hair was pitch black, and his bangs fell in front of his face, like they did on Izzy.

His face was pale, and looked pained, as if he was suffering alongside Izzy.

And those eyes…

They were a perfect emerald green color, with lighter flecks nearer to the center.

Like chu-chi's.

Like Izzy's.

They practically were Izzy's eyes... I mean… not even her sister had eyes this similar to hers…

But this man's eyes…

They somehow almost seemed… flipped.

Like you would see in a mirror.

A mirror?

I looked down again to see that Izzy had fallen asleep.

I looked back to the man.

His facial structure was similar to Izzy's, but male.

He seemed lean, not too wiry or buff.

He was staring intently at Izzy.

I looked at him for a second before coming to the thought that if his hair was red, he could probably be Izzy's twin.

"Yes, she had one a few hours ago" Sokiko said, answering my question.

"Err… Richard" she said, looking a bit uncomfortably at the mean sitting next to Izzy.

"Yes, Sokiko-sama?" he asked

Oh god… his _voice_.

It wasn't low, or high- it was somewhere in the middle; and it was smooth, and flowing… like a singers.

Like Izzy's.

"I need to go check on another patient of mine, will you be okay taking care of Izzy for a few minutes?" Sokiko said, turning away from us, and all ready to leave.

"Of course, Sokiko-sama" he said. Sokiko nodded, and left the room.

There wasn't any noise in the room, except the _whoosh_ing of the oxygen machine, and the beeping of the heart monitor.

The man… Richard, I think it was, looked up at me, and another thought squirmed its way into my head.

_If he had brown eyes, he could be Elli's twin. _

He looked more like her than even Lelouch did…

But Richard looked so much like both Izzy and Elli that it was to the point of being frightening.

His emerald green eyes bore into mine, and I felt as though he could look _through_ me, deep into my subconscious, and into my thoughts.

Our eyes were locked for a solid minute in complete silence before he spoke- still not breaking eye contact.

"You're stressed" he started.

I sighed.

"Yes. And angry"

Richard said:

"I thought as much. Who are you mad at? Me?" he said with a slightly smug smirk at the end.

The kind of smirk that Izzy gave me when she would tease me.

"Kind of…" I admitted quietly.

He chuckled softly, his laugh warm, and inviting. Then his eyes wandered over to Izzy's pale, sleeping face.

"Come. Sit down" he said, gesturing to a chair next to me.

I sat down, a bit edgy at him.

"I guess it's understandable… "He muttered, running his thumb over Izzy's knuckles.

"Yeah…" I muttered, playing with my hair.

"I mean, _I'm_ supposed to be the one to protect her, and while I'm gone, some complete stranger come around out of nowhere and saves her from impending doom!" I said an edge of bitterness in my voice.

I immediately felt a twinge of guilt biting at me

"I didn't mean to phrase it like that…" I said quietly.

I shouldn't be mad at him.

I should be grateful to this man for saving Izzy…

I drop my eyes to Izzy's pale face. Her skin looked clammy, and a bit grey… her hair was a ratty mess, and had been hacked off haphazardly…

The man smiled at my responses.

"You're not the only one who's supposed to protect her, Rei-chan"

Rei-chan… he had a certain infliction in his voice… the same kind that Izzy used when she called me by that name…

After a moment or two, I finally ask

"… Who are you?"

And then Richard laughed a bit.

"You know me as Kirimi"

… Kirimi…?

That hideous beast that resembles a deformed rabbit, lit on black fire for so long it was melting?

"Kirimi?"

He smiled.

"My real name has always been Richard, but when I met Izzy years, and years ago she bestowed the name 'Kirimi' on me, and since then I've allowed her to call me that"

I stayed quiet for a moment, digesting the information for a bit.

"But… you're human!"

He rubbed his thumb over Izzy's knuckles again; a habit I just remembered that Izzy did when she was bored, or worried.

My eyes wandered to the mirror on the wall.

I looked absolutely exhausted, but….

Neither of them had a reflection…

I looked wide eyed at the man who so much resembled Izzy.

He gave me a knowing smile.

"You obviously don't know much about the spirit animals, do you Rei-chan?" he asked, looking at my widened eyes.

Spirit animals…

"They're reflections of the soul aren't they?" I asked, a bit uncertain of myself at the moment.

Soul reflections… the mirror…

"Yes" he said, a bit quiet "we are reflections of our masters souls, and we live to ensure the safety of them. We make sure that our master never dies in the afterlife, by protecting it" he said quietly, his eyes flickering from Izzy's sleeping face to mine.

Then I remember that at least once a month Kirimi… err… _Richard_ would come to check up on Izzy.

"Is that why you check up on her? To make sure that she's safe?" I asked, forcing myself not to yawn.

He looked down at their hands.

"Yes" he said, once again running his thumb over Izzy's knuckles.

"That's so kind of you" I find myself saying. "To spend your time making sure that she's okay…" my sentence railed off when I saw the disturbed look on his face. He looked as if he had saw a ghost or something…

He said nothing for a long while.

"It's not kind" he said after a while longer. "It's completely selfish. All spirit animals are selfish in that regard, I guess" he said a bit shakily.

I raised a brow.

He looked at me with a troubled and shamed look on his face.

"Spirit animals are bound to their masters in almost every way... we know their every thought, and motivation, we know every memory, every sight, sound, smell, taste and touch they've ever experienced... we know everything there is about them, because we're bound by the world of mirrors…"

World of mirrors?

"We are their reflections" he said calmly.

"Whoa" I said, suddenly confused.

I look at my reflection, then at Richard's- Izzy's- eyes.

"And because we have such a close connection, of body and soul, we die the same instant our master's die. Because we are just reflections, we cease to exist once our masters are gone." He said, his eyes swimming in guilt.

"So the reason you all protect your masters" I started

"Is to selfishly protect our own asses." he finished for me. "It's unbelievably selfish" he added, averting his eyes from mine, and focusing on his hands, which were still holding Izzy's.

Izzy stirred in her sleep, and Richard used his free hand (the one that wasn't _really _holding Izzy's hand) and touched his fingertips against Izzy's face, and almost immediately she calmed down, and returned to her slumber.

After another long silence, that threatened to make h=me fall asleep, I asked

"Why isn't your hair color the same as hers?"

Richard looked- or at least tried to- at his black hair in front of his face.

"Because I'm half reflecting what she looks like in the mortal world" he said, still trying not to look stupid while looking at his bags. Stupidly I might add.

"So her mortal self has black hair?" I asked, trying not to laugh at how ridiculous the man before me looked, trying to cross his eyes, so he could see his hair properly.

"Yes" he muttered, still distracted by his hair. As if he'd never seen it before.

"… and she's male?" I finally asked, getting the stupid question out of my stupid head.

Stupid.

He looked at me now, genuine surprise clear on his face.

"What?" he looked like a little kid, tilting his head on the side. His green eyes focused clearly on me. No longer distracted by his hair. Finally.

"You said that you half reflect her in this world, and half from the other, so if she's female here…."

He laughed, and ran his free hand through his hair. Again with the hair! What the hell?

"No… no, no, no… no…" he laughed again.

"Izzy is very much _female_ in both worlds, Rei-chan"

But…

"Then why are you male?" I asked, exasperated, and annoyed.

"All reflections are the opposite gender of their masters" he said simply, as if it was the most obvious and simple answer in the world.

My eyes flicker to the mirror, where only my reflection could be seen.

"… All of them?" I asked, sitting up straighter in my chair.

Ne nodded.

"every single last one… except for the ones that belong to hermaphrodites… because then they'd be both genders either way I guess" he said, his eyes looking off into the distance as if pondering the meaning of life. But of course everyone knew the meaning of life was Pie~

His spacey look was enough to get a laugh out of me. He looked as clueless as Izzy did when someone tried to explain the theory of relativity (or something like that) to her.

"Reflections are freaky…" I muttered.

He smiled at me, in a devilish manner that reminded me oh-so-much of Izzy and her smiles.

"What else do you expect from us monsters?"

For that I had no answer.

Instead I got a good look at his clothes for the first time.

He was wearing a white button up shirt, with a black jacket vest over it, and a bright red tie, that matched Izzy's hair color. He was also wearing black slacks, and dress shoes.

A vague thought came across my mind… Izzy would prefer to dress this way if she were a man…

"So she was hurt… and Lacey was there?" I said. Sokiko had at least told me so much while I went to go change.

"yes." He said, his brow furrowing a bit more. As Izzy's reflection I guess he would feel bad for her daughter, right?

"So then how did you know she was having an Alice attack?" I asked, rubbing my eyelids, in a vain effort to keep them from feeling like lead.

"I could sense it" he said, a bit bored sounding.

Then I thought about the horrendous storm that had taken place in the mortal world.

"It was practically a hurricane out there…" I muttered to myself.

"Really now?" Sokiko said, striding back into the room.

"Yeah" I said, suddenly aware that _this_ was probably the reason why the hurricane had appeared.

"I guess that's our fault then" Sokiko said, scribbling down something on her clipboard, and then looking at Izzy.

"We were all worried sick about Izzy, and couldn't help but let our emotions get the best of us." She said. "And she felt so absolutely wretched inside already, so that was a part of it" she finished. Her deep dark blue green eyes peered into my icy blue ones, though her white, silvery hair. Her expression was stoic.

"Did you have anything to do with that?" she asked me, as I brushed a pale gold lock of hair away from my face.

"I saw the storm, and wondered if any of _you_ had anything to do with it. So naturally I became worried myself" I replied, and then a small smile grew on Sokiko's face.

Just then I felt another wave of sleepiness wash over me, and try to pull me into its deep dark depths.

"What time is it?" I asked groggily.

"3:17 A.M." Sokiko said, clicking her pen.

"Damn, it's late" I said, a bit stunned at how loud I said that.

"Early" Richard and Sokiko said in synch. I bet Izzy would say it too if she was awake…

"Whatever" I say slightly flustered.

"Sokiko-sama?" a light childish voice asked.

"In here, Lacey" Sokiko said, still scribbling on her clipboard.

Lacey walked in quietly, her wavy strawberry-blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, and she was already dressed up in pajamas

"You're supposed to be asleep already, young lady." Richard said a slightly disapproving tone in his voice.

"I know…" Lacey said, a bit guilty. "But I was worried about mama, and couldn't sleep…"

From the angle I could see, her yes shimmered, the green parts of the iris' practically glowing, like when fire light passed through green glass.

"We all are, sweetie, but you'll be able to see her in a few hours" Sokiko said patiently.

"Is she at least better than before?" Lacey asked, worried.

"Much better" Richard said" she'll be back up on her feet by tomorrow" then he offered a smile to Lacey.

"For a moment I gazed, in slight awe at how much Lacey looked like her father. They had a similar shape of face, and eye shape. They even had the same crinkle in their brow when they were worried.

After a second, Lacey returned the smile tentatively, and then left, muttering her goodbyes.

So she had seen what had happened to her mother…

That poor kid…

"Will you be staying for a while?" Sokiko asked, interrupting my train of thought.

"Eh? Oh! Sure…" I said, thinking that it was probably too late for me to go back out to the mortal world. In my pajamas.

In hurricane like weather.

Hell no~

"Alright then" Sokiko said, beginning to lead me to my room.

As I left the room, I took one last glance at the still sleeping Izzy.

Then I wondered if Elli and Momiji were going to be alright.

**Envylamperouge: k… so… only like 3 weeks gone *cough**_**four**_**cough***

**And… this …. **_**Thing **_** … was what was produced. First on paper at school. That only took a few days… but transferring it onto the computer… not so fun….**

**I have part of the next chapter written already… **_**on paper**_**…. OTL what a failure….**

**A bigger failure: **_**I created Richard back in December and have been waiting to put him in this story. **_

***cries in corner***

… **Rei based chapter again. I'm having fun writing things through her perspective… I wanna try to do Haru's perspective at least once more too… **_**sometime**_** in the near *cough**_**far**_**cough* future. **

**Maybe. **

**I wanna get started on my Kuroshitsuji story soon…. *has like 20 pages written on several notebooks already* … yup.**

**Thank you if you review, and/ or PM me… I am deeply touched by your caring words QuQ**

**I love you all~~ *hands out virtual cookies* **

**So please review~!**

**I'll love you a lot~~ … LoL…**

**Original finish date: 11/12/10 (okay… so it **_**was**_** four weeks…)**


	22. Don't say it

**-Momiji-**

Ugh… the light…

I squint my eyes against the morning light, cold and white against my eyes and groan.

Outside, even though the storm had passed, the clouds still hung grey and ominous.

There's something warm on my chest, but my mind is so fogged by sleep, I don't even bother to think about it.

Something is tickling my nose that faintly smells of granny smith apples, and I look at the bed, to see that it's covered in things resembling long black ribbons. Several of them.

On the night stand the clock tells me that it's just barely past eleven thirty…

Out cold for nearly eight hours… what the hell was I doing last ni- …

Memories from last night's events flashed in my mind's eye, and I had a horrid sinking feeling deep inside my chest, and immediately I panicked, wondering where Elli was.

My arms reflexively tightened on whatever I was holding, and then I heard a soft sigh and looked down.

So there she is…

Elli was curled up I my arms, her baggy pajamas twisted around her like a cocoon, and clinging to her petite frame. Her fingers were curled loosely on my chest, grasping at the loose material of my shirt.

She mumbled something in her sleep, and I brushed a stray lock of inky black hair away from her face.

Once again, she sighed, and for a moment, it seemed as if she was smiling in her sleep.

A bittersweet feeling passed through me, knowing that while she may be getting her memories erased sometime today, she was blissfully unaware of it, if only while she was sleeping.

I looked around and though my room was swathed with many vibrant colors, and stuffed animals, the grey light from outside still managed to make the room look dreary.

I blink and find it hard to open my eyes when it came time to.

When I arose once more, a few hours later I discovered that Elli was no longer in the room.

I sat up in bed and looked around for her, but something caught my eye.

Perched precariously upon the bedside table was a paper airplane.

I looked at it curiously before leaning over and picking it up, and catching sight of my name printed in neat English letters on the side. A small smile found its way onto my face as I opened up the paper plane.

inside the plane I was expecting to see a note from Elli, but instead I found a page full of strange characters composed of short lines and several dots. The page was literally covered in these strange symbols, and for a moment I was about to call Elli asking her what they were, but I caught sight of yet another neatly printed word all the way at the bottom of the page: _Izzy_.

Dumbfounded, and confused, I sat staring at the paper for a long while. it was only when I heard the door beginning to slide open did I move.

"Oh, you're awake now!" Elli proclaimed cheerily, walking over to me in her saggy pajamas. I smiled at her and gave her a weak laugh.

"just in time too! I've just finished making Lunch!" she said, exiting out the door once more.

"Lunch…?" I ask myself as I turn to face the clock on the nightstand and see that it's well past noon already.

**-Izzy-**

I yawn and scratch the back of my head as Sokiko-sama is going through my diagnostics.

"Your heart and repertory systems are running well, and your blood sugar is fine…" She says, but I manage to tune her out and take a glimpse of Richard. True to his word, he hadn't left my side all day, _and_ more importantly, I felt fantastic. it was like someone had breathed a new life into me…. okay so I didn't feel _that_ good, but it felt like that compared to last night.

"But your legs are still weak, so for the next few days I'm going to ask you use a wheelchair to get around- with the assistance of Richard, if he doesn't mind?" She ended looking at Richard.

"It'll be no problem, your highness" He responded, taking a quick look at me.

"I don't see the need for a wheelchair…" I grumbled, annoyed that the thought that I couldn't move around _by myself_.

"It'll only be for a few days, Your Highness" Sokiko-sama argued, once again leaving my part of the hospital wing.

This is stupid…. I mean, I feel great! sort of… but still!

"Master, her Highness is right, you're still not well enough to be upon your own" Richard said to me, while aiding me to sit up straight in my bed. "and you most definitely don't _look_ great" He said sympathetically, brushing my lopped off hair to the side.

"… That's a bit mean" I complained sinking into the fluffy pillows that supported my back.

"s-sorry, Master, I didn't intend for it to sound like that" He muttered apologetically, brushing his own hair away from his face. I stared hard at him for a solid minute before realizing that his hair had changed color!

"hey!" I drawled out to catch his attention "when did your hair change color!" I asked, and brought up one of my hands to his new fire red locks. He crossed his eyes in an attempt to look at them

"That? huh… I'm not quite too sure, Master" He replied. Again I stared at him

"And why do you call me master?" I asked, but before he could answer

"And how come you never told me you could be like _this_?" I asked, motioning to his… _human-y _self.

"And why didn't you ever tell me your name was Richard!" I blurted out, smacking his hand away from mine.

I glared at the so called 'Richard' and awaited his answers. He remained silent for a very long time before succumbing to a fit of giggles.

I stared at him in mild shock for a second. "H- hey… why are you laughing?" I demanded of him.

He looked up at me, once more with a sober look on his face.

"Please forgive me, master" he said dryly. I glared at him.

"What was so funny?" I asked, irritated at him. A small smile graced his face.

"it's just that… you looked so bewildered when you were asking all those questions" he answered, and brushed my hair out of my face once more.

"you don't make any sense" I muttered, mostly to myself though apparently he had heard me.

"_you_ don't make any sense" he replied, leaning back in his chair. I glared at him, but as I opened my mouth to retort, he spoke again.

"I call you master, because that's what you are to me. Would you prefer if I didn't call you that?"

"Ah well i-"

"And though I've never _told_ you I have I human form, you've most certainly _seen_ me in this form"

"wait, whe-"

"And I _have_ told you my name is Richard. Don't you remember?" He asked, smiling down at me. I stared at him in pure confusion for the longest time.

"remember? remember wha-"

And then I dawned on me. I _knew _him.

**-Elli-**

"So when are we going to go see Akito?" I asked after the unnaturally silent lunch I had with Momiji.

He looked up, startled at my question. For a moment he just stared at me, with his eyebrows knitted together in worry.

"Hatori left a message on my phone, requesting we meet at the main house later this evening" he mumbled, sitting up straighter in his chair.

"tonight?" I asked warily. Momiji simply nodded in response.

there was a pregnant silence before I managed to ask the question that had been nagging at the back of my head since I had awoken.

"Did… did Hatori-san tell you whether or not I'm going to keep my memories?" I asked, staring down at my empty plate.

again there was a long silence between us, but suddenly I felt a warm pair of arm pull me into an embrace from the back. I looked up shocked at Momiji, and expected him to say the worst.

"He didn't say. But no matter what happens in the end, Elli, I just want you to know that I-"

I turned around in my chair and with in his arms, and silenced him with a chaste kiss.

"I know" I whispered to him.

"But don' say it…. if you say it, I'll feel like…. like I'm really gonna have to leave." I continued, rising from my chair and wrapping my arms around him.

**-that evening-**

We entered the main house hand in hand, and upon entering the building we were met by Akito, Hatori, and Nauto.

"welcome, Elli" the purple haired man said calmly.

**envy lamperouge: I've been gone for over a year. I have no excuse =u=**

**but no no one can say I didn't post anything up in 2011~**

**original post date: 12/31/11**


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